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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24630844">What Are We?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyCookieManiac/pseuds/CrazyCookieManiac'>CrazyCookieManiac</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime &amp; Manga)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Good Luck Reading This, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Swearing, This is my first fanfiction ever, To the Haters and the Supporters: This Is For You, and I am Here To Fix That, and i am entirely relying on my best friend to read over this, because honestly who am i kidding we NEED to see some spice, blame her, so if you have any issues with the overall qualitu, this ship is outrageously underrated, will turn mature eventually</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 00:46:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>25,984</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24630844</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyCookieManiac/pseuds/CrazyCookieManiac</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Magna and Luck are a mess and don't know how to deal with complex emotions. They will learn how to do that because I will make them suffer. Lmao</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Magna Swing &amp; Luck Voltia, Magna Swing/Luck Voltia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>189</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Debris</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I'm trying to write this fic so that people who don't watch or read Black Clover and still like Magna/Luck (because of my constant shipping and fanart of them lol) can still understand and enjoy the fic! :D</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was a Sunday morning. The citizens of the Clover Kingdom helped each other rebuild their houses, stores, and overall life–the mess the Elves had made during their raid was no joke. Many of the Magic Knights that were supposed to be protecting the Kingdom were possessed by the many Elf spirits seeking revenge for the atrocity humans had committed five hundred years ago. Or so they thought. Little did they know them all had played right into a Devil’s hands. It was incredible how much chaos could rise from a single incident. No one was left unaffected.</p><p>Not even Luck.</p><p>“Damn…,” he muttered to himself. Magna was in the middle of carrying some crates filled with objects that were found buried under the debris in his hometown, Rayaka. While the vast majority of the other Knights were helping out in the common and noble realms, the remaining few were scattered around the forsaken ones. And he had to admit, having just a handful of them aiding the poor was a lot compared to how deprived of attention and care the peasants were under normal circumstances. To think that the bias against the weak still prevailed after the entire Kingdom suffered what was probably the biggest blow ever since it was founded… that’s just one more thing he’d have to add to his “Things I Must Accomplish Before I Die” list. Fight for equality. Insist on it, and make sure everyone knew that even a peasant such as himself was strong and deserving of respect and dignity.</p><p>Speaking of peasants, Asta had completely outshined him ever since he joined the Black Bulls. And he was so much younger than him! As proud as he was of the boy, Magna had to punch himself on the face. He needed to step up his game. Especially if he wanted to become stronger. Stronger so that he could protect the Kingdom and the people who were important to him. </p><p>Like Luck.</p><p>Heck, if Asta had never shown up… if Vanessa hadn’t been there to support him… he wouldn’t have stood a chance. As much as they fought constantly, usually over stupid reasons (like Luck purposefully eating that limited edition pudding Magna had been saving for when he came back from his very exhausting mission, damn it all!), both of them knew that Magna just had no chance of winning against him if they ever took their fights seriously. Mana just oozed from the boy like he was the very source of it, not to mention the top notch battle instincts he was born with and honed with every single mission he went on. And he <em>enjoyed</em> fighting. Truly a perfect battle machine.</p><p>Fighting is pretty much everything Luck ever did, aside from pulling pranks on him and on their other teammates occasionally. Sometimes he went along with whatever people invited him to, such as going shopping with Vanessa, joining eating competitions with Charmy (although he usually just watched), and heck, he even went along to that mixer Finral invited him to once. Luck never seemed particularly interested in any of that, but he didn’t have a reason to turn them down either so why not tag along? It seemed like whatever he did when he wasn’t fighting was just killing time. Even though they were almost always together… and despite the fact that he was his best friend, he could never actually tell what was going on in his mind. That smile rarely, if ever, faded off his face, and there were only so many emotions he could show while wearing it.</p><p>That’s why seeing those tears streaming off those blue eyes of his absolutely <em>destroyed</em> him. The unthinkable had already happened: Luck had lost a fight he wasn't even given the chance to counter when Lufulu, the elf spirit that had possessed him that night, took over his body. He, who never let his guard down and was the first to notice any sign of danger. He who took so many blows and bled so much, not even flinching that delicate body of his. On the rare occasions Luck was sitting still, not really doing much but existing, Magna couldn’t help but notice how small and lean he was. Sometimes it made him think that he was as fragile as spun glass, and wonder how in the <em>hell</em> he didn’t break after getting so beaten up in battle. But, finally, he shattered.</p><p>Luck being the way he was, Magna never thought he’d live to see him cry. That psycho-looking kid actually looked like a child who had made something that upset his parents and felt the utmost pure form of regret. He had unintentionally hurt his friends. He was <em>forced</em> to and couldn’t fight the enemy back alone. Or at all. If Magna had been in his shoes, he’d probably never be able to forgive himself. But that was just him. In no way did he blame Luck for what happened, and the thought of doing so had never even crossed his mind. All he had been thinking about was how to make Luck come back.</p><p>“Damn it,” he muttered to himself again. He was <em>weak</em>. He couldn’t do a single thing alone either. Had that fight been one on one, not only would Magna have been killed, but Lufulu would’ve forced Luck to kill a few hundreds of people before someone, probably Asta, could’ve done something about it. Everything could’ve ended that night. But no matter how many times he was beaten to the ground, thrown around like a ping pong ball at buildings (so strongly they were damaged in the process)–<em>nothing</em> hurt more than seeing Luck fall apart like that. And if he was being honest, Magna had never even felt that sort of pain in his life before. He didn’t know it even existed.</p><p>And the more he thought about it, the more frustrated he got. These new emotions were all so confusing. Were they even new at all? Maybe what was new was that he was feeling them all at once. To think that Luck could look so fragile in the middle of the battlefield… even more fragile than he had looked earlier. It’s like every wall Luck had built up had shattered to countless pieces instantly and he was terrified of the consequences. Usually people were scared of him. He always had that manic expression on his face, and the power to destroy someone at literally lightning speed. Just as Magna had thought earlier: he was the perfect battle machine. Yet, he looked so absolutely terrified of being left alone again, right when he finally found a group he could fit in with and be himself. That night, at that time… he was just an insecure 18 year old boy, desperate for any reassurance that everything would be alright between them, and afraid for his life if not given any. </p><p>While Vanessa and Asta were visibly relieved, Magna couldn’t feel it at all. All he could do at that moment was to pull him into a one-arm hug, because just telling him that “of course, idiot” wasn't nearly enough to make his point. Point being, he would <em>never</em> leave him, nor let him feel afraid of being abandoned ever again. He wanted to make all those awful emotions disappear from inside Luck’s heart and mind. Thankfully, at least temporarily, that had been enough for them. But for some damn reason, Luck's response was to kick him in the face right after. Jesus! That dimwit already had a few screws loose, and Magna thought he might have lost some more during the whole thing before Vanessa clarified that Luck was trying to hide his embarrassment. </p><p>Embarrassment? Had Luck ever felt embarrassed before in his life? He couldn't recall ever witnessing such a thing, but Luck’s only response had been to scratch his head and laugh shyly, albeit in his usually lively voice. So all that could mean was that Vanessa was right, and that ended up making him flustered himself. Embarrassment, huh… </p><p>"Hey, young knight! Are you alright?" </p><p>A voice snapped him out of his thoughts. </p><p>"You've been standing in the middle of the street for a while now… if you're tired, you can take a break, y’know? We can handle doing this much ourselves." </p><p>Oh. Crap. Right. He had a job to do. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm fine. I'll take these to the lost and found tents right away. Here, let me take yours too.”</p><p>"Are you sure? These are pretty heavy…" </p><p>"Yeah, it's no problem. Mine aren't that heavy anyway. You can go get some more while I'm at it." </p><p>"Alright, if you say so." </p><p>The man, probably around his thirties, placed the three crates he was carrying on the ground so that Magna could properly re-organize them in his grip, quickly thanked him, and left. As he picked them up, he couldn’t help but admit that, damn, the man was right. These <em>were</em> heavy. Usually he could handle this much weight fairly easily, but he was still injured from his previous fights. He had of course received medical care (mostly from magic healers) but had told them to stop the treatment as soon as the pain had eased to a bearable intensity so that they could go aid the citizens. He was used to getting hurt and could deal with it, but the majority of the population couldn't. They needed help more than he did. </p><p>Well, whatever– the faster he carried these boxes to the tents, the faster he'd be rid of the weight and the pain that followed it. And so he went back to work, trying his best to focus on the tasks at hand instead of everything he couldn’t stop thinking about. Even so, the thought of Luck somehow always found its way to the back of his mind during the day, causing him to be snapped out of it by fellow citizens a few more times. At least all of the sweat he was working up would surely make him pass out in a flash once he got back to their hideout at dawn. He really needed the physical and mental rest.</p><p>Once a good chunk of the workload was done and they all decided to call it a day, Magna was invited to join them for the dinner they were distributing for the community. He had to consider it for a couple seconds. These people already had so little to eat, <em>he</em> at least could afford to eat somewhere else (or just ask Charmy for food), so there wasn’t a need for him to take a share that could be given to someone else. But they were trying to express their gratitude, and refusing the invitation would be pretty rude… he guessed he could eat half a portion and hang out for a while before going back home.</p><p>Despite all the chaos they’d all been going through, and the fact that many of them lost their houses and had nowhere to sleep, they were all incredibly lively. Seeing them all laugh and joke around made him feel happy and relieved. They were all still alive, and that was all that mattered. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Pipin' Hot Kernels</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Magna has a breakdown. This chapter is angsty :'^)</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Small reminder that this chapter was written thinking about the people who don't read/watch black clover!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Being a peasant did have some pros that could easily outweigh all the cons they had in comparison to the rest of the kingdom: while commoners and nobles were already born having a house to live in, food to eat and granted protection under the kingdom, peasants had nothing. Every single one of them had to build everything for themselves. They planted and hunted their own food, they built their own houses and they had to watch each other’s backs. It was very common for some peasants to steal from the common realm– some even dared to loot from nobles– but surprisingly, none stole from each other. </p><p>If there was one thing they were raised to learn, it was to share. Only those who had to work hard for their life knew the hardships they had to go through. For that they respected each other, and were united as a community. Obviously not everything was a bed of roses, but usually they’d beat some sense into each other when someone got out of line. He couldn’t speak for the other villages, but at least Rayaka was like that and Magna was proud to have been born and raised in it.</p><p>So, in summary, they would be just fine. There was nothing they could do about the lives that were lost, and the grief would last a long time, but now they were stronger than ever. Their ability to adapt to changes was better than most. Magna would be sure to watch over them until the village could stand on its own again. He’d have to go around the rest of the peasant realm to make sure the others were doing alright too, because who knew when the other knights would ditch them.</p><p>“You seem to be troubled with something,” a lady said while handing him a drink. It looked like apple juice. “You’ve helped us out so much today! The other knights that were working here left early, but you stayed with us until now. If there’s anything we can do to help you, even if it’s just having an open ear, please let us know.”</p><p>He couldn’t help but smile. He was grateful when people cared, especially since that didn’t happen often. It wasn’t often that he overthought things, anyway. Usually his problems were completely dealt with at the end of each mission, after he wrote his reports and all. He’d always keep himself busy even when he wasn’t assigned anything. Before Asta arrived, he used to play at casinos (and lose everything he had) a lot. But after, he really couldn’t afford to waste the time. Especially when the Clover Kingdom had been under constant attack for so long. Besides, how was he supposed to spar with Luck if he didn’t work his ass off to catch up to his ridiculously fast improvement?</p><p>Agh!! There he was again, damn it! Magna shut his eyes and sighed in frustration, pulling his shades up to pinch the bridge of his nose.</p><p>“Thank you miss, I’m fine. It’s just… I don’t really know why exactly, but there’s someone I can’t stop thinking about.”</p><p>People who heard their conversation stopped talking between each other to listen. They had been worried about him too. Most of them didn't know him personally, but they sure knew that he was the pride of the village! He was strong enough to join one of the Magic Knight's brigades! </p><p>Magna stayed silent for a while. He didn’t know whether or not to say any more than that. One of the other villagers encouragingly asked, “Want to tell us what happened?”</p><p>He finally opened his eyes, surprised to see that quite a lot of people were looking at him. Damn, had he been acting <em>that</em> oddly to be getting this much attention? Now he felt as if he <em>had</em> to say something. But…</p><p>“It’s a pretty long story, I’m not really sure how to go about this.” He paused for a moment. “One of my friends, he... also fell victim to the Elves and had one of the spirits possess him. And…”</p><p>Gosh, he really didn’t know where to start. Which was ironic, considering his mind couldn’t seem to stop thinking about every single detail about it. He sighed again and covered his face with his hands. Another voice popped from the small crowd that was forming around him. He considered himself to be a people person (even with this delinquent attitude), but now he was starting to feel kind of uncomfortable.</p><p>“Well, that friend of yours should be healed by now, right? I don’t see any other Elves walking around here.”</p><p>“Yeah!! If they come around again, we’ll scare them off! I’ll blast ‘em like a pipin’ hot kernel with my popcorn magic!”</p><p><em>Popcorn magic?!</em> What?! Magna had to look up to that. Who in the world…</p><p>And then everyone started to laugh. </p><p>Oh. </p><p>It was a joke. </p><p>What the hell, he should’ve been able to tell that- </p><p><em>That man just started creating freaking magical popcorn!!!</em> It was popping <em>everywhere!</em> It wasn’t a joke!!!! And the children were picking it off the ground to eat it, Oh my God-</p><p>“Sir, you should go meet one of my teammates!! Charmy, she can make all sorts of foods with her magic! Maybe she could help you learn a few more spells?” What the heck, that was awesome!! Completely useless in battle. But very awesome nonetheless!</p><p>“Oh, really?! Take us to town next time then, kid!! Maybe with you around they’ll allow us to take a stroll!”</p><p>“Do you think miss Charmy would let us eat some of her food too?!”</p><p>“Oh, absolutely!” Magna said. A smile instantly spread across his face as he started to feel better.</p><p>“What else can your teammates do, mister? Do you think we could visit the rest of them too?” A little girl ran up to him to ask with big, sparkly eyes.</p><p>“Please tell us more! What’s it like to be a Magic Knight?! What sort of missions do you go on?!”</p><p>Any awkwardness he had felt completely dissipated. He loved to boast about his friends, and was proud to be part of that team. The first one he talked about was none other than the captain of the Black Bulls himself, Yami Sukehiro! He was the absolute coolest of them all, the most manly man among men to ever exist! Not to mention he had excellent taste, since he chose them all to be a part of his team! He really was the best!</p><p>And by his side was always Finral, their space magic user!! Flying in between dimensions was so incredibly convenient, it’s like their captain won the lottery to get him to join the team! He was the flirtatious type, always trying to pick up girls, but he had the kindest heart among them all. Everyone loved Finral. Except for his royal family, who couldn’t appreciate his kindness over the fact that he was unable to use his magic to injure people. Their loss. Royals: 0, Black Bulls: 1!</p><p>He told them about Gauche’s sister, Marie, who was a badass little girl and would probably love to befriend them. Gauche would always fiercely object to anyone who dared take Marie’s attention off him, being the overly protective overprotective brother he is (with double emphasis on the “over” and “protective”), but would probably let it pass since it would make Marie happy. He’d do anything to see her smile. But they’d still be walking on thin ice!</p><p>Gordon looked scary, but he was honestly a pretty nice guy. The few times Magna could hear what he was trying to say, he was amazed with how much trivia he knew. And how much specific knowledge he had about their teammates...Magna himself included.</p><p>… Yeah, that was kinda creepy, he wasn't gonna lie. </p><p>Uh. Moving on, Grey was a special kind of amazing! Damn, the girl had completely hidden her identity ever since she joined the team, and that was years ago! They all had always thought she was this big, 3 meter tall, intimidating man that did nothing but puff out air unnecessarily loudly. One had to be very skilled to pretend to be someone completely different for so long. Turns out she could use transformation magic. The girl had talent!</p><p>And Noelle, the late bloomer. Went from “I can’t control my water magic!” to absolutely <em>destroying</em> enemies with her Sea Dragon spells in the blink of an eye. The royals suffered a glorious loss when they chose to ditch her just because she was still incapable of fully mastering her abilities at that time. Magna adored her, even if she never treated him as her superior. Royals: 0, Black Bulls: 2! Hah, take <em>that!</em></p><p>Along with Noelle came Asta, the truly <em>chosen</em> one. The boy didn’t have an ounce of magic in him. He was born blessed with bad luck–if that could even be considered a thing–and there was nothing that could stop him. He transformed his absolute weakness into outstanding strength, and that was something Magna didn’t think anyone but Asta could pull off. And the fact that he was also a peasant made him all the more proud. He was really out there showing the world how it’s done!</p><p>Don’t even get him started on Vanessa, their local witch! The woman could <em>control destiny itself!</em> How horrifying was that?! To the enemy, of course! I mean, try putting yourself in their shoes! Imagine using everything in you to attempt so much as giving her a tiny little scratch, and not being able to do so because her magical cat, Rouge, changed the destiny course of each attack so it wouldn’t hit her, nor any of her allies?! Magna knew many would kill to have her powers! It was thanks to her and Rouge that Asta arrived at the right moment that night! To… To save his life… </p><p>And Luck's.</p><p>Magna stopped dead in his tracks. </p><p>
  <em>Luck. </em>
</p><p>"Luck? That's a funny name! What sort of magic can he use? Is he strong?! Can I be his friend too?!" </p><p>Suddenly, all the energy he had found to go off about how he had the coolest teammates in the world disappeared. He could feel his heart sinking again. </p><p>"Yes, he is… he is very strong. He uses lightning magic, and…" </p><p>He sighed. Gosh, why was this so hard? Luck was his friend. They were asking Magna to talk about <em>him</em>, not the damn incident. He could do that much, right? </p><p>"He, uh, he moves very fast," he tried, "he's definitely the fastest one of the team. His ability to detect mana is off the charts, too. Captain Yami told us that, had it not been for his personality, all the other captains would've fought for him."  </p><p>Alright, that was a good start. </p><p>"What do you mean? Is he a bad person?" </p><p>"No! No, he isn't!" Well, that reply came out before his brain could catch up. "He just enjoys fighting a lot more than he probably should. He always goes all out on battles and sometimes overdoes it when he's having too much fun." </p><p>"How can someone have fun while fighting?" Another lady asked from the crowd. "Both parties get hurt. What's so fun about that?" </p><p>She did have a very valid point. But… "He has fun because he <em>can</em> have fun. He's just that strong. It's like battle is a language and he completely dominates it. Even when he knows he can't win, he still gives it all he's got. He's… really amazing." </p><p>"Well, what's wrong about that, then?" Another man asked. </p><p>"Huh? What do you mean?" </p><p>"If this boy, uh, Luck, was it? If Luck loves fighting so much and is good at it, why wouldn't any of the other captains want him?" </p><p>"Ohhhh wait, I think I might have heard about him before! Is this Luck the one that people call the Cheery Berserker?" Someone else joined. </p><p>"Yep, that's him," Magna replied.</p><p>"I heard he beat up a candidate far more than needed during the Magic Knights application exam… Are you sure he's a good person?" </p><p>Magna stayed silent for a while. </p><p>He was getting tired of thinking. … Blast it, who needs to think anyway. </p><p>"Ever since we've met he's been a little pest, if I'm being honest," he started, completely ignoring the fact that he was trying to protect his image a few seconds ago. "That jerk zapped me for a greeting. And for some reason, our captain always assigned us to missions together. He's <em>completely</em> reckless in any event, and doesn't seem to have a care in the world. He's so confident in his abilities he's a little bit too laid back, and while he works to improve himself and become stronger so he can write new spells, he keeps fooling around with the ones he already has. Once, on one of our missions, for no reason at <em>all</em>, he covered me with his lightning magic, spun me around like a spinning top and called it the 'Crackling Magna Typhoon' to defeat enemies he could've taken out single handedly. That idiot!! The electricity kept running through my body for a good while after the spell ended, not to mention it made me feel so damn sick I thought I was gonna die!!”</p><p>Magna could tell he was getting worked up and that the people were starting to look kinda tense, but his short temper showed no mercy. He couldn’t stop speaking.</p><p>“That dude is seriously <em>nuts!!!</em> What in the <em>world</em> makes it so funny to prank me?! If I’m sleeping, he’ll draw all over my face with permanent markers… If I’m working, he’ll trip me over and make me fall in the most impossible, ridiculous ways…!! He ate my <em>DAMN, <strong>LIMITED EDITION</strong></em> PUDDING!!! WHEN I WAS LOOKING SO FORWARD TO IT!!! <em>MULTIPLE TIMES!!!</em> GOD,<em> WHAT</em> IS HIS PROBLEM?!!”</p><p>The villagers were glancing around, unsure of whether they were supposed to just let him talk or if one of them should try to calm him down. By now he had already scared off all of the children that were around him into hiding behind the adults. His voice was so loud that probably half of the entire village could hear him, given how small it was. Asta only wished he could out-loud him right now.</p><p>“Y’know, I’m a <em>peasant</em> who got to join and become one of the Magic Knights!! A <em>peasant!!!</em> I’m very damn well aware that I’m nowhere near as strong as all those other stupid royals who can cast huge ass spells as if it were as easy as blowing their fucking nails to dry their fucking nail polish!!!”</p><p>Whoops, he started to swear. <em>‘Cover your ears, children,’</em> he thought for a very brief moment. At least <em>some</em> part of him still held common sense.</p><p>“So I gotta make it so people don’t underestimate me!!! I may not be as strong, but I sure as hell am not to be underestimated either!!! But these people out there won’t get it!! The discrimination runs deep and I can’t fight it all alone, so if they’re gonna judge me, it might as well be over my attitude, and not my magic that i’ve put so much effort and hard work into perfecting!!!”</p><p>He was starting to sweat.</p><p>“It’s not like I <em>want</em> to be, sound, and look like a fucking <em>delinquent!!</em> I have to, if I want to stand strong out there together with everyone else!!! Even when the difference in power is as clear as day…!!” Magna put his glasses back on and grimaced, to make his point, <em>“I’ll shut them all up with this stupid face and violent attitude of mine, before they can even start to go off about how unworthy they think I am of being a Magic Knight!!!”</em></p><p>The people flinched, and some even took a step back. He sure did look intimidating.</p><p>“And yet…!!!”</p><p>Magna looked down, and repeated in a lower, wavering voice:</p><p>“And yet…”</p><p>He took his glasses off again.</p><p>“That idiot, he isn’t scared one bit. But he doesn’t underestimate me either. All he does is play around with me, and I don’t even know what kind of game we’re playing. He always stood by my side… he always fought <em>with</em> me. He never minded if I was loud and aggressive, and he never treated me any differently for it either. Instead, he’s just…”</p><p>He wasn’t angry anymore, but didn’t know what he was feeling either. His expression was pained, as it was insecure, unsure, and maybe even a little scared.</p><p>“... There.”</p><p>Everyone stood in silence for a while, no one sure what to say or do. Magna seemed to be trying to organize his thoughts, but then he quickly remembered he had decided to ditch them in the first place, so he continued:</p><p>“And I got to know him well. As well as he got to know me. We don’t need to talk or discuss things to understand each other, but it’s not like we know everything about each other, either. But we continue to learn about and adapt ourselves to each other every day. But, that night, after Luck came to his senses… when he…,” he had to pause to swallow and sigh, “when he cried, I… I felt like there was so much about him I didn’t know. And... I didn’t like that.”</p><p>His voice kept getting lower and lower, to the point where people had to lean a little bit closer to hear what he was saying.</p><p>“Since I’m so loud, and keep intimidating people… no one ever wanted to get too close. And I could deal with that. But then Luck just… crashed into my life and stayed there, and the more time we spent together, the more I noticed that, he was… just as lonely as I was. But we had each other from the moment we’d met. And we didn’t push each other away… so…”</p><p>“W-When he…”</p><p>There was no reason to keep his composure. He felt ridiculous, but he started to cry.</p><p>
  <em>“When he looked like he had been abandoned…!! I felt that was all on me…!!!”</em>
</p><p>More silence. This time, a respectful one. They were showing empathy and wanted to give him time to go on, if he wanted to, and so they could figure out how to comfort him.</p><p>As loud as his voice was, his sobs were unusually silent. If they hadn’t been watching him cry right in front of their eyes, they probably wouldn’t even have noticed he was crying at all.</p><p>
  <em>“It’s all on me…! Because I’m weak, I couldn't do anything for him…!! No matter how much I tried… if it weren’t for Vanessa and Asta…!! If I can’t protect anyone, what is there to be proud of?! If I can’t protect Luck, I’m not…!!”</em>
</p><p>He’s not what? Worthy of being his friend? No, that was stupid. Friendships didn’t entail individual strength. They were friends because they liked and accepted each other the way they are. But Luck and Magna had always stood together… they had always watched each other’s backs. And if Magna couldn’t do that… he felt like… Luck had chosen the wrong person.</p><p>
  <em>“I’m not worthy to stand by his side…!”</em>
</p><p>And Magna stopped there. What else was there to say? If anything, the pain and guilt he was feeling was too overwhelming for him to attempt continuing to speak without a filter. Only nonsensical thoughts would come out, especially the depressing ones. No one said anything, but some crouched down next to him to do soothing motions on his back and to just stay beside him, while others looked for tissues or rags.</p><p>Respectful silence took over the crowd. </p><p>And a single, shocked silence, from a person who had watched everything from not too far away, hidden behind a building under reconstruction.</p><p>“I came to pick him up since he still hadn’t returned to the hideout… just in case he was too tired to come back home by himself…”</p><p>Shit. Finral had unintentionally put himself on the spot.</p><p>“What am I supposed to do now…?!”</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>*lends you tissues*</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Family</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh God. Oh, God.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Finral was starting to panic. What had just happened?! He’d never seen Magna act like this before…!! He was always so confident and full of himself, and Finral knew that he was a good person behind his scary appearance and intimidating aura… but what he just saw was completely new to him. What was he supposed to do?! </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The two weren’t particularly close, but they liked and respected one another. Man, to hear Magna praising him and the others so openly… it brought tears to his eyes, damn it! But not just that!! The boy was completely falling apart! As his senior, he should probably step in and say something… but what?! He never knew he was capable of being so… so vulnerable… in front of others!! Maybe he could do that because he was at his home village, and it felt as if he was surrounded by his family?! If so, would Magna even want anyone in the team to see him like this at all?!</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Calm down, Finral. Breathe. Breathe!!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He inhaled and exhaled slowly.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Okay. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He remembered the conversation he had had with the team a while ago.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Hey, has anyone seen Magna~?” Luck asked, walking towards the group that was starting to meet up back at their hideout and looking around–in vain, since he already knew he wasn’t there. He couldn’t sense his mana anywhere.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Wasn’t he helping out back at his hometown? Things are probably pretty rough down there.” Gauche replied in a boorish tone. He was too busy knitting Marie a new scarf. The weather showed no signs of chilling anytime soon, but he would much rather be safe than sorry. “Don’t you worry, Marie…!! I won’t let you feel cold. You can think of this scarf as if it were me protecting you from it!!” he muttered to himself.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Eeh. But it’s already late,” Luck answered, his tone unchanging.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“He must be catching up with his fellow people, no?” Vanessa stretched as she laid on the couch, “Let him have his moment~ he’s been working hard. Why don’t you relax too, Luck? Come lay down with me!” It was a light-hearted invitation, but she knew he wouldn’t stay still. Far from it, whenever Magna came back home. They’d immediately start to bicker and- oh, wait!!</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Luck!! You can’t possibly be thinking of picking a fight with him, now of all times?! Let the boy breathe once in a while, would you?” </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Oh, no. I wasn’t going to.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>… He wasn’t? Vanessa sat up straight to take a look at him. Luck stared at the entrance with a blank expression. Something was off. If Vanessa hadn’t known him better, that’d have been the end of the situation. But it didn’t really seem urgent, either, so she was going to leave it at that for the time being; after all, she, too, was exhausted from helping lifting heavy objects and clearing away paths with her string magic. Still- she mentally took note of it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“If he doesn’t get back soon, there won’t be any left for him~~!!” came Charmy, mouth full of the pasta her cooking sheep had made with her Cotton Creation magic. “Come on people, dig in!! Empty stomachs are a crime, and in this house I demand ORDER!!!” </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Whether they gathered together or not didn’t matter- her magical sheep were already handing out food for everyone, who gratefully took their share. Charmy’s food was the best in the entire Kingdom and none of them could be convinced otherwise (not that they had any other places to compare it to since they rarely ever had to waste money on that). Luck, however, just held his plate like he didn’t know what to do with it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Finral took notice. But, before he could say anything, Yami popped up behind him.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Finral, go pick him up. You have at least somewhere near Rayaka  marked, right?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Ah, yes, I do…” Both him and Luck looked up towards him.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“That idiot might have overworked himself enough to be too tired to get back here on his own. I wouldn’t mind letting him spend the night there, but with how chaotic things have been, we might need him here tomorrow.” He walked towards Charmy’s magical sheep and sat down next to them. “Don’t take too long.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Alright, understood.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Finral opened the portal. He could only travel to anywhere he had marked his magic on, and to anywhere as far as he could see with his own eyes. The closest place was… just near the entrance of Rayaka. That would work just fine. As he stepped into the other dimension, he felt Luck’s eyes on him. He turned to ask what was up, or maybe if he wanted to come along… but his eyes said everything.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>Don’t take too long.</em>
  </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>It wasn’t really in a threatening manner, but, yikes… he nodded and went through the portal. Man, that boy sure was intense…</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Back to present time… </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>‘Don’t take too long’... how long has he been here for? Maybe 10 minutes…? That wasn’t much, but taking into account that it only took 5 seconds for him to walk through dimensions, 10 minutes was… </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He sighed. No matter what, he had to bring Magna back… orders were orders. And also, Luck was scary. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That said, it still didn’t change the fact that he didn’t know how in the world he was supposed to approach him… They were friends and cared about each other, sure! But Finral felt as if he wasn’t the right person to try and comfort him right now. Actually, this was probably something he’d have to sort out with Luck himself… was that why Luck was asking for him? “I don’t think he knows about this at all, though,” he ended up saying out loud.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Aahh, God!! Why did these two have to be so complicated?! And scary!! They were so scary!!! But the scariest of them all was their captain, Yami, who would definitely kill him if he didn’t return with Magna soon…!! Curse it all!!</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Orders are orders…” he repeated to himself, shutting his eyes close and inhaling all the air his lungs could take–then releasing it all at once, opening his eyes wide and marching towards Magna. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Alright, okay. He could do this!!</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Hey, Ma-”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“AAAAAARGHHHH!!!!!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Everyone visibly flinched, and Finral nearly had a heart attack when Magna suddenly got up and screamed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“SHIT!!! I don’t have time to stay here moping!! I gotta go back to the hideout, otherwise Yami’s gonna kill me!! Damn it.” He rubbed his eyes fiercely with his arm. That their captain wouldn’t tolerate objections was common sense to the Black Bulls. “I’m sorry, that was pathetic of me…!! I’m not supposed to make you guys worry when I’m the one who has to look after you!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Even as he said that, his voice cracked. He wasn’t quite ready to go back yet, but didn’t give anyone a chance to respond or stop him as he immediately walked out of the crowd in direction to where he had parked his Crazy Cyclone and-</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Oh.” Magna came to a halt at the sight of his teammate.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Finral’s poor heart almost stopped again. Goodness, the look on his face… he had all of his walls down and couldn’t hide his pain if he tried. His overconfident and intimidating aura was gone as if it had never existed in the first place, his emotions easy to read as if they were an open book. He looked like a puppy that was kicked out of its home. Sad, hurt, lonely (despite all the people comforting him), guilty... and now, surprise and confusion found their way into his expression. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Finral couldn’t help but feel a warmth in his chest that pretty much blew away all of his worries. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I… I’m sorry, Magna. If you’re wondering, yes, I did hear everything you said.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Magna just stared at him for a few seconds before looking down. Well, how fantastic. He wasn’t sure what to feel or how to react to that. He tried to find the words, but nothing came out.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You know, there was nothing pathetic about that.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He stayed silent, so Finral continued. “Whenever you talked about your village, you always took pride in it being like a huge family, where everyone looked after each other. Why are you excluding yourself now?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Magna could only stare.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Honestly. What do you think you’re made out of? It’s only natural for you to be stressed and burnt out, given how much is going on. And I know that everything happened just recently and we’ve barely had time to catch our breaths, so we haven’t really had the chance to sit down and talk, but… listen, we’ve been together for a few years now. You can think of us, the Black Bulls, as your family too…! If you’re worried about something or have any problems, without a doubt, </span>
  <em>
    <span>everyone </span>
  </em>
  <span>will be there to help you no matter what. You don’t need to act as if being overwhelmed is a weakness. Feelings, emotions… they’re what make you human. And I guarantee there isn’t a single one of us in this universe who can keep their cool with so many of them going on at the same time. Being vocal about it is nothing to be ashamed of.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Any shred of composure Magna managed to gather with that scream of his was gone. His eyes burned with tears that had started falling mid-way through Finral’s pep talk. Geez… he knew Finral was kind, but he never expected this level of empathy towards him. Not that he doubted him, it’s just that… neither of them were used to it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I understand you having to put up a front so that others won’t underestimate you. I was born a royal, so I trust your judgement on this. But it’s alright for you to be more like…  however you want to be when you’re with us. We don’t underestimate you, and although I respect your pride as being born a peasant since you </span>
  <em>
    <span>are</span>
  </em>
  <span> part of the minority that were allowed to join the Magic Knights, your social status, much like everyone else’s, doesn’t define who you are. It’s just a </span>
  <em>
    <span>part</span>
  </em>
  <span> of who you are.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He got closer to ruffle his hair. “You don’t have to be ‘Magna, The Peasant With A Delinquent Attitude So As To Make People Back Off’ when you’re around us. You can be just Magna. It would do you good to treat yourself more kindly.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He sobbed a little bit more audibly this time. What. So he was allowed to have some of his walls down every now and then? He didn’t have to be so in-character all the time…? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His body was starting to shake, and he instinctively brought both his arms to cover up his face. This was the first time he felt so exposed. He hadn’t meant to become the center of attention like this, much less have people take care of him as if he were just a kid.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Good grief…” he said, as he pulled Magna into a hug. It took him a moment, but he reciprocated with one arm, using the other one to keep covering his face.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“T-Thank you…” he managed to say after some time. Whatever emotions he was feeling right now were too complicated for him to even think about. At this point he was just letting them all out of his system indiscriminately. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You better start treating me more like your superior right now~!”, Finral said playfully, since he was respected as one even less than Magna was. But really, he was relieved that he had somehow managed to deal with this situation.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Not that this was over. Far from it. His panicking earlier hadn’t allowed him to think properly, but now that this was out of the way… </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Magna’s entire vent had been filled with so many complex emotions, he doubted it was just that single incident that made him feel that way. A specific phrase stuck to his head: </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>‘If I can’t protect Luck, I’m not…!! I’m not worthy to stand by his side… !’</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He’d have to think about how to approach him on that. Or rather, he’d have to keep a close eye on both him and Luck to try and understand what exactly he meant from that. The relationship those two had was… different, to say the least. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Friends”, sure… except the amount of pranks Luck pulled on Magna was too high, and it always resulted in violence; “Rivals”, except they never seemed to be competing to see who got stronger, but rather, growing to be strong and on equal footing together. “Family”? Yes. Everyone was, in the Black Bulls. But none of those words seemed to be quite it. He said he felt “unworthy” to stand by his side…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Finral guessed that’s something he’d need to talk to Vanessa about later. But for now, he’d just give the poor boy some time to feel better before taking him back. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He felt like tonight was going to be a long one.</span>
</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ughhh I'm sorry if this was too cheesy ;w;!!! But this had to be dealt with and poor Magna needed emotional support so I had to give him it aksjdjkaskjs <br/>I'm guessing this is going to continue being angsty for a while... I'm sorry, I just like angst a lot KJASDJKAS but I'll try to add comic relief every now and then!! But if I'm being completely honest, I really have no idea where the story is going, I'm just letting it write itself ;w; <br/>I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!! I hope to get the next one out sometime soon!! Thank you for reading!!! ♥♥</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. A Play</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“H-Have a little decency!! Don’t just eat everything at once!”</p><p> </p><p>“Mmfuf Immph humphhby!!”</p><p> </p><p>“I can’t tell what you’re saying!! Don’t speak with your mouth full!”</p><p> </p><p>As soon as they returned, Asta and Charmy’s magical sheep met them half-way as they ran towards each other–the sheep shoving food at his face and Asta swallowing everything without missing a beat. Noelle could only watch in horror. ‘There’s no way he has only one stomach in that body of his… I bet there are ten more inside of him…’ she thought to herself.</p><p> </p><p>“THAT’S THE SPIRIT, ASTA!! EAT UP, THERE’S PLENTY MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM!” cheered Charmy as she also stuffed her face with food.</p><p> </p><p>‘If Asta has ten, I bet Charmy must have one hundred… I wonder if the smaller the person, the bigger their appetite? Yes, that definitely must be it…’ Noelle thought to herself again. She was hungry too, but just watching the two of them eat like there was no tomorrow made her feel kind of sick.</p><p> </p><p>The worst part of it was that their captain was having a blast watching them go, laughing loudly and betting Vanessa three bottles of wine that Asta could eat more than Charmy this time. They were all just outside their hideout. It was common for them to hang and eat outdoors after a hard working day. </p><p> </p><p>“Aaassstttaaaaa…. cooouullldddd yyooouuuu…. briiiingggg ssoooommmeeeee…. foooorrr meeeee…. laaateeeerrr…????”</p><p> </p><p>Only then did the boy pause, looking up at the small confined room where that voice came from. It was Henry, the landlord of their hideout, who had been part of the team before anyone else. Nobody (besides Yami) had known he even existed before he had to come out of his room to help fight alongside his teammates during the Elves incident. Due to a disease, his body involuntarily sucked out all the mana from the people around him, so he had to keep his distance. Thanks to that, he was abandoned by his parents and left on that mansion, which was now the Black Bull’s base. But Asta, who had no mana at all, found and befriended him not too long after he joined the team while he was running chores.</p><p> </p><p>“Ooph!! Mhennmhry!!”</p><p> </p><p>“Swallow before you talk, Stupid-sta!!” Noelle scolded, and he immediately complied.</p><p> </p><p>“Henry!! Sure thing, I’ll be up there in a minute!”</p><p> </p><p>“Thheeeereeee’s nooooo ruuuusshhh…. taaaakeee yooouuurrrr tiiiiimeeeee…!! Yyyooouuu neeeeeddd tooooo…. eeeaaatttt mooooreeee thhaaaannn…. Iiii dooooo…!!”</p><p> </p><p>Speaking slowly apparently was part of his disease too. Maybe part of it was because he was isolated for so long. Thankfully, Asta was really patient with him, so they could communicate just fine.</p><p> </p><p>“Alright!” He replied, and immediately resumed stuffing his face with this super tasty meat thing the sheep were serving. He had no idea what sorts of spices and seasoning were on the food but oh, my God, that was delicious. He could eat it forever. Charmy met his pace shortly after, and Yami and Vanessa resumed rooting for them.</p><p> </p><p>Luck was also being entertained by it, but not enough for him to feel at ease. It was a good distraction nonetheless. When he thought of joining their bet just for the heck of it, a light emerged from thin air and, suddenly, a portal appeared. </p><p> </p><p>Finral was back. And so was Magna.</p><p> </p><p>Luck’s heart skipped a beat. He was waiting for him, but now that he was here, he wasn’t exactly sure what he was supposed to do.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, you’re back. Took you long enough. You two hurry up and-”</p><p> </p><p>One look at Magna’s face made everyone stop to stare. Even Gauche stopped what he was doing. Not like they hadn’t seen him cry before- he actually got emotional pretty often and cried (“manly”, as he would always insist) tears whenever something sad happened to someone. Empathy came natural to him, and that he felt strongly for others wasn’t news to anyone. But none of them had ever seen him look this way before.</p><p> </p><p>As if it were obvious, all of them took a stance or placed a hand on their grimoires. The entire situation screamed, “Who do we need to fight?”</p><p> </p><p>“A group of actors were doing a play and my favorite character died,” Magna blurted out.</p><p> </p><p>Finral looked at him in utter confusion. What was he talking about?</p><p> </p><p>“They were good at acting, and the death scene was convincing… so I ended up crying a lot more than I should have,” he continued.</p><p> </p><p>Oh. He was making up an excuse? Finral looked back at the team. They were as confused as he was, but they didn’t look very convinced. He decided to lend him a hand.</p><p> </p><p>“A-Ah, yes… when I got there, the play was coming to an end… the crowd seemed really tense and focused on it, so I found it hard to interrupt. There were others crying just as hard as Magna was.”</p><p> </p><p>Magna was quick to create a cover story, so that could only mean he didn’t want to talk about what had happened, at least to the others. Finral wasn’t really good at lying, but his voice sounded steady and natural enough, and it seemed to calm the others down.</p><p> </p><p>“Good grief… Why are people doing a play? Especially now, of all times?” Vanessa sighed and visibly relaxed, taking a sip from her now half empty wine bottle.</p><p> </p><p>“mumblemumblemumble...mumblemumblemumble…” appeared Gordon out of nowhere, along with Grey. As always, no one could hear him, much less make any sense of what he was trying to say.</p><p> </p><p>“I see nothing wrong with it. Everyone’s been going through a tough time. Let them have their fun,” Yami answered, also visibly relaxing and eating some of the meat Charmy’s sheep were still cooking. Damn, maybe he’d get in on that bet. This was so good.</p><p> </p><p>“What’s so fun about character death, though…?” Noelle sighed as well. They were having to deal with real losses. Why make fictional ones too? Maybe that was some sort of coping mechanism to deal with reality?</p><p> </p><p>“Mister Magna!! You should eat some of this, I’m sure you’ll feel better in no time!!” Asta reached out to offer him a plate. “Miss Charmy’s food is really good! Today it tastes exceptionally delicious!!”</p><p> </p><p>He took a plate and managed to smile a bit. But just because he lied about the reason he was feeling down didn’t mean he could actually feign his emotions. He had to try, though. “Thanks, kid. You worked hard today?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yessir!! I helped rebuild some of the houses–boy, I sure had to lift some heavy weight today! I’m exhausted, but I could keep going anyway!”</p><p> </p><p>“Hmph! That’s Stupid-sta for you. All muscles and no brains! You need to learn when to rest!” Noelle flipped one of her pigtails as she spoke.</p><p> </p><p>“mumblemumblemumble…. mumblemumble….” Gordon tried to join. Nobody heard him.</p><p> </p><p>“I miss Marie every day, but I’m glad she doesn’t have to live near you idiots. Stupidity is contagious… Oh, Marie, I’ll do anything to protect you…” Gauche said as he resumed work on his scarf. He wasn’t convinced by their story, though. He could tell they were lying, but it wasn’t his place to do anything about it, so he kept quiet. Despite the fact he was obsessed with his sister, he was the most clever member of the Black Bulls. He had both instincts and knowledge, and could probably easily solve most problems if he gave a damn about them at all. But Marie was more important than anything, and she was all that mattered to him.</p><p> </p><p>“M-Magna!! I-I-I h-h-have s-some t-t-tissues i-if y-y-you w-want t-t-them…!! Ah-- b-but please d-d-don’t look a-at m-m-me!!! T-This is embarrassing, o-oh, I-I’m so e-embarrassed…!!! P-Please d-don’t l-l-look at m-m-me…!!” Grey tentatively offered while looking away, using one hand to cover her face and another to hold out the tissues towards Magna.</p><p> </p><p>He briefly looked at the tissues, then away as he took them. “Thanks, Grey.”</p><p> </p><p>‘He really didn’t look at me…’, she thought. Usually the members looked at her anyway, because honestly, it was hard to talk to someone while not looking at them and she knew it. But it felt as weird as it felt nice to have someone respect her privacy for once.</p><p> </p><p>Luck just stared.</p><p> </p><p>A play? Really? That couldn’t be it. Maybe he was just too stressed and overreacted to it…? But, no. That couldn’t be it. He usually got over that kind of thing pretty quickly. Yet, he didn’t look like he was doing well at all. Finral joined Asta and the others at the feast. Even though he looked alright, Luck sensed he was uncomfortable. </p><p> </p><p>Magna could feel Luck’s eyes on him. He didn’t want to look back. And it frustrated him. What was so wrong about looking back at him? Why couldn’t he throw a, “You lookin’ to pick a fight, loser?!” and make things normal again? Instead, he just wanted to get inside and lock himself in his room as soon as possible. He didn’t want to eat, and, heck, he wasn’t even up to talking to anybody right now. He thought that, maybe after he slept, he’d feel better and things would be back to normal.</p><p> </p><p>‘That’s right’, he thought to himself. This was all just stress and exhaustion making him overreact. He would be just fine, he just needed some time. And so,</p><p> </p><p>“Sorry, guys. I’m feeling kinda tired right now. Would you mind if I went upstairs?”</p><p> </p><p>“No. Go get your rest. Good job today, Magna.” Yami quickly replied, not taking his eyes off his plate. But Magna also responded a beat too quickly, placing his plate on the table and almost running towards the entrance. </p><p> </p><p>Yeah, something was definitely fishy.</p><p> </p><p>“Finral?” Yami asked after Magna went inside, looking him in the eyes, as if daring him to lie again.</p><p> </p><p>“A-Ah… well…”</p><p> </p><p>“If he has a problem he’s having trouble solving on his own, covering for him won’t be of any help at all, you know~” Vanessa said before drinking more wine.</p><p> </p><p>Luck paid close attention to their interaction.</p><p> </p><p>“I…”</p><p> </p><p>Finral looked down and sighed. </p><p> </p><p>“I don’t think you should hear anything from me… I guess you guys could ask him later, and, if he wants to talk about it, then that’s good. But he clearly doesn’t want to talk about this right now, so…”</p><p> </p><p>“Okay. I’ll talk to him.”</p><p> </p><p>They all looked at Luck, who didn’t waste any time putting his own plate down and walking towards the entrance.</p><p> </p><p>“Luck, wait-!!”</p><p> </p><p>He looked annoyed, but stopped anyway to look at him questionably. </p><p> </p><p>“Um…”</p><p> </p><p>Crap. How could he put this…</p><p> </p><p>“What?” The silence hadn’t even lasted that long, but Luck was already impatient.</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t… If, if he doesn’t want to talk, don’t force him to, okay?”</p><p> </p><p>“... Okay.” </p><p> </p><p>They stared at each other for another couple seconds, then Luck went inside. Finral was feeling kind of restless. He thought that maybe he should’ve stopped him, but what sort of excuse could he make up for that? Besides, the issue did involve Luck, so they would end up having to sort things out one way or another, be it directly or indirectly… he sighed again, and could only hope for the best. The others slowly resumed what they were doing before, but had lost a good part of the liveliness they had had. If one of them wasn’t feeling okay, all of them got worried.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>♣♣♣</p><p> </p><p>A few meters away from their hideout...</p><p> </p><p>“Idiots,” Zora scoffed, laying on top of a large tree branch. Nero joined him behind that same tree, watching silently.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So, apparently, I'm the type of writer that likes writing long fics &amp; slow burns. Gosh, 4 full ass chapters and nothing of Magna/Luck interaction?? Jesus!! I already wrote the 5th and, spoiler alert, it also doesn't have Magna/Luck interactions. Even so, it's very LuGna centric. Hopefully they'll start interacting in the 6th chapter and then I can introduce some.... sexual tension... 👀👀👀👀</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Funny Mister</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Luck had taken less than a minute to follow Magna inside the base, but he was still nowhere to be seen. Had he started running right after closing the door? Was he really that tired? If so, maybe Luck should actually let him rest before talking to him. But…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>‘He didn’t even look at me.’</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He frowned. Usually, one of the first things they’d do whenever they met was to greet each other. Sometimes in a friendly way, sometimes in a neutral way. Sometimes with a zap to coerce Magna into opening fire in response. But, no matter what, they </span>
  <em>
    <span>always</span>
  </em>
  <span> acknowledged each other when they occupied the same room.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And, after that fight… everything was alright. They fought alongside each other, and even got to cast a combo spell together later. But all the adrenaline provoked by the chaos was long since gone as they helped aid the citizens in restoring everything that had been destroyed. Luck had been assigned to distribute food and essential items across the land– he was fast and could get that job done better than anyone. Still, every so often someone would stop him to ask for assistance with other, unrelated things. Consequently, that led to overhearing people talk about their experiences during the incident.</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Mommy, look at that mister! He looks like the one from yesterday!!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Shh!! Don’t speak so loudly…! He might hear us!!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He had indeed. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Luck took the opportunity to (carefully) approach the two, keeping a respectful distance so they wouldn’t feel threatened by him.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“You might be right about it being me… but I wasn’t in control of my body. How much have you heard about what happened?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“N-Not much… before we knew it, our house was falling apart, but when we ran outside to find shelter, there was nowhere to hide… y-you’re not going to attack us, right?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>There were still so many people confused. Imagine losing everything out of absolutely nowhere and not even knowing why… Luck sighed softly, and calmly explained the situation in a way that hopefully wouldn’t scare them too much. It appeared he had been successful, at least to some extent, if the evident feeling of ease they showed at the reassurance that the magic knights would work as fast as they could to support them and bring things back to normalcy was anything to go by. With that out of the way, he asked,</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Could you tell me what you saw that person who resembled me doing?”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“They were flying really fast, mister, all over the place! So fast I couldn’t see them! And then a lady with a big hat and a mister with a funny hair color showed up and they started attacking them…”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That was Vanessa and Magna. So she was talking about him, after all. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“The lady had this cool magic, it looked like strings! She stuck them to the funny mister and kept pulling him like a puppet to avoid the attacks. But even when he was hit, he never stopped no matter what!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Luck couldn’t recall much of the battle itself. All he remembered was who he was fighting against, and that his entire body was moving against his will. Even if he had been in a state of slumber, his subconscious seemed to be struggling to make him stop. But...</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>There was something missing. Something that was stuck at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t make anything of it. It was definitely important, and the fact he couldn’t remember what it was bothered him greatly. The girl continued,</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“He kept yelling at the bad person to wake up, and for ‘him’... I think he was talking to the Elf spirit inside them? He kept yelling at the enemy to give ‘him’ back…saying that they didn’t know about the person inside them, him or the relationship they had… so there was no way that they could win.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“But that boy,” her mom intervened, “he didn’t seem to have much mana… and if I recall correctly, in order to fight against the Elf inside them, he caught himself up in his own attack to pin you down… he really went all out, but the more he and the lady fought and exhausted themselves, the Elf didn’t seem fazed at all… or rather, they grew even more powerful. Neither of the knights gave up, but there was something that particularly caught my attention…”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>This conversation was stirring up bad feelings inside of Luck. Feelings of pain, regret, and even panic… he could’ve easily killed Magna and Vanessa that night, if it weren’t for Rouge’s powers and Asta. Part of him wished he could go back in time and fight harder against the reincarnation spell. The fact that he couldn’t remember that important something that was missing from his memories made him feel even worse.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“That boy seemed to know that he had no chance winning against them in a fight. But he kept screaming their name… I think it was ‘Luck’? I might be wrong, but it seemed to me that, instead of trying to overpower them, he thought he had a better chance of winning by calling out to this Luck person, in an attempt to wake them up. He seemed desperate to the point where he’d injure himself in the process, on top of all the damage the Elf was already inflicting on him… and even when they held him by his neck–”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>His neck.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>His neck…?!</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>‘Right…!!’ Luck’s eyes widened in realization. He had held Magna by his neck… up in the air…</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh my God. He had choked–</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“–he didn’t stop calling for Luck.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That’s right. He didn’t. His words were clear in his head now…</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“I don’t care if you’re an Elf or whatever! I’ve got no business with you…!! That idiot is the one I’m fighting with!! Hurry up and get outta there, you moron!!”</em>
  </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“He’s messed up and always stirs up trouble, but he’s my little brother…!! Give him back!!</em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>” Vanessa’s words also rang in his head.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The Elf forced him to retort…</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“This is when you humans turn traitor so easily... Are you telling me you have some sort of bond?! HAH! Don’t make me laugh!! Your stupid bonds are meaningless!! There’s nothing you can do to break the reincarnation spell… this human’s soul has already been destroyed!!”</em>
  </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“Oh, is that so…”</em>
  </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He remembered the pained look on Magna’s eyes.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“Then why are you crying?”</em>
  </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Up until that point, Luck had never shed a single tear in his life. Not even when his mother passed… that’s not something he had ever said out loud, but Magna seemed to know that anyway.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“To think you’d show me something so out-of-character…!! I know you’re still in there, Luck––so listen up, loser!! While you’ve been out here fooling around, I went through special training and got crazy strong!!! If that pisses you off, wake the hell up and come fight me!!!”</em>
  </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Ah…</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“Luck!! You can’t cut ties with us of your own accord!! I’m not letting go of you, so hurry up and come back!!”</em>
  </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Vanessa was also giving everything she had to save him. And, after that… Asta saved Magna from what would’ve been the final blow by a hair's breadth. At all times, they had been so, so close to meeting their end… still, during that entire fight, Magna was the only one the Elf had targeted. Vanessa was there helping, but none of her injuries had been inflicted directly by him. Anyone would get injured if they stood anywhere near their battleground. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>So that’s what he was trying to remember…</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Magna couldn’t win against Luck. Which made winning against that Elf nowhere near the realm of possibility. But he stood there, taking hit after hit, inflicting injury upon himself on top of it all… and all Luck could do was shed some tears in response to his effort. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Pathetic,” he ended up saying out loud, in a quiet tone.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“I’m sorry?” Said the lady.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Mister, are you okay? We were talking about how this other boy came flying in with a huge sword–were you listening??”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Right. The other boy that came flying in.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“Would you give it a rest already, you idiot?!” </em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>Magna tried again.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“I already told you, I’m not letting go of you…!!” </em>
  </b>
  <em>
    <span>Vanessa...</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He remembered talking to his mom, confused… in his mind, he was just a child.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if it really were us, humans’ fault, I’m sorry….!! I’m really, really sorry!!”</em>
  </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That voice was Asta’s.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“But, as far as we’re concerned… Luck is our precious friend!! I beg of you, please don’t take him away from us!!”</em>
  </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He remembered the tight grip around his shoulders and pressure on his chest. Magna and Vanessa were pinning him down, and Asta held his anti-magic sword close to him. Shortly after, he came to his senses.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And for the second time that day, he cried. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“I… I’m still…”</em>
  </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“I’m still the Black Bull’s friend… right…?”</em>
  </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He was confused and barely had any idea of what had just happened… besides the fact that he was the one who had inflicted that much injury to his friends. To Magna especially. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And Magna, with that short temper of his… instead of blaming him for letting his guard down, or calling him names, or telling him they had no time to cry and for him to get it together…</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He… hugged him.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And reassured him. </span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>After all the damage he took… not a single word of anger, frustration or complaint… all he said was,</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“Of course you are, you idiot.”</em>
  </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That had been the second hug he’d ever been given in his life. The first one was given to him by his mother, who praised him, a commoner, for beating a royal in a magic competition at school.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>The second… was from someone he had nearly killed countless times just a few minutes before. From someone dear to him. From…</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>From Magna.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Mister? Miiiisteeerrr?? Are you listening????”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>“Ah, yes. I’m sorry. Thank you for telling me all that,” he put on his default smile as he answered, “I’ll use that information for the report I have to write and turn in to the Magic Knight quarters.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He got up and picked up a few of the boxes he had been carrying before turning to tell them one last thing. “I have to deliver these to the other side of the kingdom, so I’ll be taking my leave now. You two take care!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>He never waited for an answer and immediately left.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>He had to talk to Magna.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This was… all of this was so wrong. He couldn’t really say he was at fault because this had been a massive tragedy… strength didn’t matter at all in this case. Nobody could’ve seen that reincarnation spell coming. But… </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It didn’t change the fact that this was </span>
  <em>
    <span>wrong</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Luck wasn’t the best at dealing with emotions… It wasn't until recently that he had learned to treasure friends and to fight for more than just the sake of winning. It took Asta to force him to recognize their friendship, and some fighting alongside Magna for him to notice that he had been his first friend all along. He was always there. Luck had never met anyone who not only wasn’t scared of him, but actually humored him and went along with his pranks that often led to sparring. They had a strange relationship in which shenanigans became a synonym of…  endearment. It was their thing, and Magna never took anything the bad way. Sure, he thought Luck had some serious problems, and for that he could’ve pushed him away so many times… like everyone else always had. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yet, he didn’t. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Magna put his life at risk for the sake of Luck’s</span>
  <span>, knowing damn well that he was relying entirely on luck itself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He was </span>
  <em>
    <span>crazy</span>
  </em>
  <span>. God, where was he now? Had he already gone to his room?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Now that he noticed, he could barely sense his mana. It was so low he couldn’t pinpoint his exact location. But it hadn’t been that low when they were outside just a moment ago–was he suppressing it so Luck wouldn’t come after him? Was that it?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Did… did he really not want to see him? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luck wasn’t one to hesitate. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he did. Or had he ever at all? Everything in him was telling him to go talk to him right now, but his mind… no, his heart? was telling him that maybe Magna didn’t want that and he should give him space.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He clenched his fists. What should he do…?! Why did this have to be so complicated in the first place? They were talking just fine after the whole battle. They were friends… it shouldn’t be this hard to talk and clear things up. Or...</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Had… had he actually hurt Magna’s feelings this time? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He instantly went cold and he felt his heart clench at the thought. Oh God, no. He didn’t want that. He really didn’t want that. How was he supposed to make up for it then? Magna had never really gotten truly </span>
  <em>
    <span>mad</span>
  </em>
  <span> at him before. They’d always been just fine after their usual fights… but now he was avoiding him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luck’s chest was starting to burn uncomfortably. Was that fear he was feeling? The logic in him had it that this wasn’t anything they couldn’t talk out… but the thought he had possibly hurt him for real this time was… terrifying.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He lost track of time, and had no idea for how long he had been standing there anymore. He didn’t even know if he was supposed to sit down to calmly organize his thoughts, or maybe come up with some sort of plan or whatever. He didn’t know–</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why don’t you just ask him if he wants to talk?”</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Crap!! That scared him! Who in the world– </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He turned around, surprised to see that Nero was standing right behind him, and her mana made her presence completely obvious. Had he really been so lost in his thoughts he hadn’t noticed her coming in?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“W-What?” Was all he could say.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You want to talk to him, </span>
  <span>and are hesitating because it feels like he’s avoiding you</span>
  <span>. Why not ask him directly if you’re unsure?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>… </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>… Right. That was… certainly a valid option. But all Luck could do was shift his stare from her to the ground.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Nero stayed silent for a while, and when Luck showed no signs of responding, she continued,</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Insecurity is often just your mind playing tricks on you. If you don’t know what or who to listen to… if your emotions are getting in the way of your decision-making, you should take facts into account.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luck looked at her again, his troubled expression changing from frustration to realization.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You two have built your bond for a few years now. A single incident can’t scar it so easily.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“How… do you know about this?”, was all he managed to answer after few more seconds of silence.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We could hear you talking outside, dumbass.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Wh–?!!</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Zora was here, too?! Since when?! He could also sense his mana clearly now that he was right in front of him… maybe the stress was getting in the way of his mana detection…?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Honestly. Even if we hadn’t, you two are so damn easy to read,” he said, scratching his head as he walked towards Luck. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It’d do all of us good if you two could work shit out already.” He stopped a couple steps in front of him. “We can’t allow anyone having their mind all over the place in the middle of the battlefield. Who knows when some other assholes will come up here to roast us again? Don’t go giving yourself permission to hesitate, you absolute moron,” flicking him in the forehead.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Get your ass up there and get this over with, </span>
  <em>
    <span>stat</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>They both had a point. His nervousness didn’t go away, but he couldn’t rely on himself right now so if he had two people telling him to get it together go for it, then he had to get it together and go for it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He sighed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ready or not, here goes nothing.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ohhhh my Goddddd these two are a disasterrrrrrr askdjksjad but I hope this chapter was enjoyable ;w; next chapter they'll finally start interacting with each other so you can look forward to that 👀👀👀</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Doorknob</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Prepare yourselves, this chapter is 100% angsty :')</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>As he got closer, his mana detection picked up on Magna again. True to his word, he was inside his room. So there really was no point in suppressing his mana other than to tell Luck not to get close.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That didn’t change the fact that they </span>
  <em>
    <span>had</span>
  </em>
  <span> to talk.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When he got there, it took him a few moments to gather up the courage to bring his fist close to the door...but he couldn’t seem to find the courage to actually knock. How would Magna react…? Would it anger him further if Luck disturbed his privacy right now? He knew they had to sort things out one way or another, but...if the timing was bad, they could end up not being able to talk for days. Who knows how long the awkwardness between them would last from a misstep? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luck mentally cursed himself out. His uncaring, laid back attitude was gloriously backfiring on him now. He had no experience whatsoever in dealing with delicate situations, so he stood here now, relying on Zora’s and Nero’s judgement, but…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But he still couldn’t bring himself to knock.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What was he supposed to say, anyway? He was feeling so many things at once he didn’t even know what bothered him the most, much less how to contain them all in favor of acting with logic. Especially because all he had were assumptions on how Magna felt. Maybe it was all in his head and Magna really was just stressed and tired from all the work he’d done today and needed to rest, and he got worked up over nothing. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But Magna hadn’t looked at him...and indirectly warned him to keep his distance...so...</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Damn it,” he muttered to himself in a low voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Not low enough for Magna not to catch it, though.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>On the other side of the door, long before he heard him, Magna </span>
  <em>
    <span>knew</span>
  </em>
  <span> he was there. Sure, now he was close enough his mana would’ve blown his cover even if he had been trying to hide it, but he just...felt his presence. He always knew when Luck was around. Don’t ask him how and why, because all his ability to discern such had nothing to do with anything related to analyzing his magic, energy or...whatever else, in any way. Luck was just Luck, and when he was around, the space was filled in a unique way. He couldn’t feel the same for anyone else on the team. It was just...different. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He wondered if Luck felt that too.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Magna sighed. He had quickly come inside, hoping to be left alone; he wanted to avoid dealing with this at all costs right now. But that was all wishful thinking. Of course he wouldn’t be left off the hook so easily. Life was never that kind.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He carefully walked towards the door, doing his best not to make any noise, and...stood there. For some reason. He sure as hell didn’t want to open it, and he didn’t want Luck to open it either. So what was he standing there for? His brain and body both seemed to have a life of their own now, and Magna felt like he was being toyed with as a third party. As if to prove his point, his hand moved itself towards the handle.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But he couldn’t touch it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>All that was left was for smoke to start steaming off his entire body right now. Honestly, what was going on with him? His hands, feet and insides had gone cold and he would probably start shaking at any moment now. Did he really need to be that nervous? Nor it or anxiety were news to him; he had learned how to handle himself in these situations specifically because he experienced them constantly...but this time just felt...as if it were the first time he felt scared in his life.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He tried to calm down and reason with himself. What exactly was he scared of? He didn’t think Luck would come and make fun of him for being weak. I mean, he did that occasionally, but it never had been in a condescending way. Was he afraid Luck would tell him it was okay and that he could understand he wasn’t strong enough to do something about the situation himself? ...No, that wasn’t like Luck at all. Was he concerned Luck wouldn’t want to be friends with him anymore, or something? No, that was just stupid. Luck wasn’t stupid.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Then why in the </span>
  <em>
    <span>hell</span>
  </em>
  <span> was he so nervous?! This didn’t make any sense!! </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I’m too embarrassed to face him.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His subconscious stabbed him with an answer. And it was right. Magna had been blaming himself all day for not being strong enough…</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I’m scared to feel out of place by his side.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>There came the second stab. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The truth was as sharp as a needle. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luck always had been stronger than him, and after that battle he had leveled up probably a hundred times more. If this were compared to a marathon, Luck would have long since been out of sight. And Magna...couldn’t hope to keep up at all. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>‘I’m not worthy to stand by his side…!!’</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>That’s right. That’s what he had said earlier today. </span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I’m scared to lose him.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh, God. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He was scared his own weakness had created such a huge gap between them, Luck would stop picking fights with him. Because he’d lose interest and think, ‘he really is just a peasant, after all’. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He was scared that, if either of them opened the door, they’d be as good as strangers. Luck was so far ahead of him, he felt he could easily forget Magna even existed in the first place.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His body got even colder as it started to shake. Breathing was proving to be difficult, too. He’d never been this scared in his life. Apologizing was a </span>
  <em>
    <span>must</span>
  </em>
  <span> and it had to be done as soon as possible, but the fear that doing so would just make him look and feel even more pathetic was making it all the worse.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Maybe…maybe he should just accept defeat and…move on with his life.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>…What </span>
  <em>
    <span>was </span>
  </em>
  <span>his life before Luck had crashed onto it, anyway? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Boring</span>
  </em>
  <span>, was what immediately popped into his mind. That boy had always been unpredictable. He knew he was out of his mind, but he still managed to surprise him every single time. If anyone had told him someone as crazy as Luck existed before they met, he’d have laughed it off as a joke. He couldn’t be real. But he was, and now he had no idea how he was supposed to live without him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>A life without Luck</span>
  </em>
  <span>...ouch.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The pang he felt in his heart at that thought was so strong it physically hurt, and was enough to make him tear up again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh no, no, no, no. Anything but that.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He remembered Asta’s words...</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>
    <em>“But, as far as we’re concerned...Luck is our precious friend!! I beg of you, please don’t take him away from us!!”</em>
  </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Don’t take him away from me.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He meant to scoff at that last thought, but it came out as a shaky sigh. Who was he begging to? His own weakness? The more he thought about this, the more miserable he felt.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His hand, however, aside from the shaking, stood unmoving close to the door handle.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>As well as Luck’s fist on the other side of the door.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He knew Magna was there…they were literally just a door away. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But he feared that they were actually much farther than that. Even if he knew they always had each other’s backs…if he really had gone too far this time, then…What was he…</span>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What am I supposed to do without Magna by my side?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>
  <span>–</span>
  <em>
    <span>Ouch.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Man, </span>
  </em>
  <span>that had </span>
  <em>
    <span>stung.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There were so many things Magna had taught him. He, who was much more sensible than him...who cared for others and their well being, who was so reliable when it came to taking care of everything in a much more friendly way than he could. They were always together...he was his first friend.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He had others, now that he acknowledged the rest of his teammates as such. But Magna was the only one who could handle Luck’s personality, and the only one he felt could be 100% himself with. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>If he had gone too far this time, even if he hadn’t been in control of himself...he couldn’t force Magna to stay. He would have to let him go, and Luck would have to accept that consequence, seeing as he was the one at fault. The last thing he wanted was to hurt Magna again, so he should just take responsibility for it and talk to him already. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But his selfishness spoke louder, as it wanted for their relationship to stay unchanging despite the fact he had most likely ruined it himself. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>...Unchanging? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That sounded wrong. Luck wanted to go back as they were before; to bicker just like normal, without actually hurting each other. But this entire situation brought to light a side of Magna he hadn’t known before. One where he was actually hurt and wanted to keep his distance, whereas under normal circumstances he’d have dealt with it immediately. He was usually the first one to call someone out on their bullshit, and he should’ve done the same to him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And there were other sides of him that he’d only be able to learn if they spent more time together, so their relationship would naturally end up changing with time.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>There was...there was still so much they could learn together. So much they could learn about each other. Luck didn’t want for this to end now...not this way. Or in any way at all.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“...Magna…” he started in a low voice.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Magna flinched on the other side of the room.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I...I know you’re there…” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He paused. Luck was starting to tear up, and Magna’s heart stopped. Oh, my God, he didn’t want to hear what he had to say–it would </span>
  <em>
    <span>definitely </span>
  </em>
  <span>tear him apart…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The silence went for longer than Luck had intended. He wasn’t sure what to say. And it was </span>
  <em>
    <span>killing</span>
  </em>
  <span> them both. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Every second passed felt like eternity, and it made him start shaking a little harder than before. Magna cursed at himself for lacking control over his own body and emotions right now. Had Luck been waiting for an answer? Nothing about him was ready to deal with this, but he managed to answer in a much lower voice than expected,</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m here.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luck’s eyes widened, like he had been spacing out and his voice had snapped him out of it. The fist he held close to the door unclenched as it instinctively reached the doorknob. And he </span>
  <em>
    <span>still</span>
  </em>
  <span> wasn’t able to touch it, </span>
  <em>
    <span>damn it all, </span>
  </em>
  <span>leading him to let out a loud, exasperated sigh, once again calling out,</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Magna</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That was all he could bring himself to say. Now that he had his attention, his heart sank rapidly and tears threatened to fall at any moment. </span>
  <em>
    <span>‘Just apologize’, </span>
  </em>
  <span>his brain told him, and he knew he should listen to it but right now it was easier said than done.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Magna wondered if Luck was having a hard time choosing his words. Whether he was meaning to console him or unfriend him, he was sure he hadn’t done either before. The fact that Luck was here for him at all, despite all the negative emotions he was feeling right now, was endearing. The boy had learnt to take the initiative in dealing with situations that involved emotions, at least, and that was something he hadn’t been able to do when they first met. Fighting him was all that had mattered; he had cared less about the aftermath.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And now he was trying to reach out to him. Even if he was weak, Luck still cared about him enough to be there. This realization just confused him further, and he couldn’t stop the tears from falling. But he figured he’d encourage him anyway.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m here.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It barely came out as a whisper. He couldn’t muster any strength to speak louder than that. A few more moments of silence followed it, but he figured he needed to give Luck some time to think.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m scared.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> He heard in a voice just as quiet as his.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m scared too.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Neither of them were sure what the other meant by that, but they seemed to take some weird sort of comfort in knowing it was mutual.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Silence ensued for moments longer, until it was broken by the sound of heavy teardrops falling on the floor, followed by the sound of Magna’s head resting against the door, staring at the doorknob he couldn’t touch. His hand was still hanging at the same place, like it had been frozen. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Was he sobbing…? Luck heard him, but it was so silent he could barely pick it up. Magna was crying too...had he hurt him that badly? Luck’s heart clenched again. Crap, he really was making the situation worse, wasn’t he…?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Do you want me to leave?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His voice cracked. More silence followed, but Luck’s hand still stood close to the doorknob.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Magna didn’t know how to answer at all. Did he? He had, up until a few moments ago. Before he had realized that Luck was putting up effort into being considerate of his feelings. But now...they were at a door’s length. He couldn’t bring himself to open it, to let him inside, but he couldn’t push him away either. He should let Luck give him a chance to talk about the distance between them, whatever it was he wanted to talk about anyway...so no, he didn’t.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Please don’t leave me.</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>…? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The both of them were confused. What was Magna talking about? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>Crap!!’</span>
  </em>
  <span> His mind immediately told him. He hadn’t meant to say that!! How could he?! He couldn’t even save Luck when he needed him…!! Was he out of his mind?! He immediately got ready to apologize, but then…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The doorknob moved.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He stepped back, and the door opened.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Somehow, it felt like it was the first time they were seeing each other in ages. They just stood there, looking at each other, shocked. As if they’d find some sort of answer just by staring at the other’s eyes.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What are you talking about?” Luck said with a much steadier voice this time. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry,” he replied immediately. “I didn’t mean to-,”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What are you apologizing for?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What am I apologizing for…?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Isn’t it obvious? The two of them were incredibly confused. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>...Right. Maybe Luck didn’t want an apology at all. It’s not like doing so would erase the fact he hadn’t been able to do anything for him. What </span>
  <em>
    <span>should </span>
  </em>
  <span>he do, then? If he was here, there had to be something he was expecting of him. He was about to ask, but Luck was faster.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You...don’t want me to leave you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>‘No. Absolutely not. Never.’</span>
  </em>
  <span> His mind </span>
  <em>
    <span>aggressively</span>
  </em>
  <span> denied it as soon as he heard those words. Was he nuts? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I…” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Crap. He couldn’t look at Luck anymore, so he shifted his eyes down to his feet.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry, that was selfish of me to say. I didn’t mean to. If...” He sighed. “If you want to...If you don’t want to, I don’t know…” He sighed again. Luck stayed silent.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“If you don’t want me to be around you, or something...or to stop going on so many missions together, because we both know captain Yami gives us plenty, I can...talk to him about it and, maybe…he’ll at least include a third party…?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Who was he kidding? If he ever brought that up to Yami, he’d tell him to get his shit together and talk things out with Luck. They were a good team no matter what, and Magna felt irrational as he spoke. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What are you talking about?” Luck asked again. Magna looked back up to him, confused.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean…?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re...you’re talking as if you were the one who did something wrong. Are you not mad at me…?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why would I be mad at you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>At this point, they had stopped crying, too confused about what was going on to continue. They had been so caught up in their own emotions that they hadn’t considered any possibilities other than their own fears coming true.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I almost killed you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“No, you didn’t. That wasn’t you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But I couldn’t stop, even after you called out for me.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“That’s because I wasn’t strong enough to actually stop the Elf inside you.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“And I wasn’t strong enough to fight him off, either…!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luck stepped forward and tears started forming in his eyes again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Magna, I could’ve </span>
  <em>
    <span>killed</span>
  </em>
  <span> you!! While you were putting your life on the line doing everything you could, I didn’t even </span>
  <em>
    <span>try </span>
  </em>
  <span>to fight against the spell…!! I wasn’t even aware I had been possessed until I almost took your life!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“It wasn’t you, and it wasn’t your fault! That’s why we were trying to wake you up, but nothing I did worked and, if Asta...if Asta hadn’t gotten there, if I had actually been killed, it would’ve been all on me!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What are you saying?!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You…!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was Magna who stepped forward this time.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’ve always been stronger than me…!! But we still always fought side by side!! I was supposed to have your back, and I didn’t when you needed me the most!! You couldn’t even ask for help, and all I could do for you was almost die at the hands of the spell you hadn’t even had the chance to fight against!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You--”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>weak</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Luck!!! I can barely do anything if you or anyone else isn’t there to save my ass! Why would you even want someone like me by your side?! You couldn’t even count on me that night!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Everything hurt as he said that. Speaking the truth out loud was so much worse than keeping it inside, and he couldn’t help but cry again. Luck was looking at him like he was crazy, but that didn’t make him stop.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Not like you’d ever need me for anything, anyway!! You could prank on anybody else, you could steal anybody else’s damn pudding if you wanted to!! Heck, Charmy would put a much better fight against you if you stole </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span> food!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>What was he even saying. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But I get it if you get fun out of picking on me…!! It’s not like I was ever a challenge to you, you could knock me out in a second if you wanted to!! I was never a worthy opponent to you to start with…!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Magna wasn’t looking at Luck while he said all that, but maybe if he had been he would’ve stopped. Luck stared at him like he was absolutely crazy, but guilt hit hard on him too. He recalled Magna’s words…</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>‘</b>
  <b>
    <em>While you’ve been out here fooling around, I went through special training and got crazy strong!!! If that pisses you off, wake the hell up and come fight me!!!’</em>
  </b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Did you think the only reason I’d ever wanted to stay by your side was so I could get you to fight me at my own terms?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Magna stayed silent, still unable to look back at him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luck couldn’t believe it. Had </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> been what was going on in Magna’s mind? Instead of being hurt by the fact that Luck’s inability to handle the enemy himself had almost cost his </span>
  <em>
    <span>life,</span>
  </em>
  <span> he worried over not being strong enough to fight by his side…?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>All of that was so incredibly wrong, and Luck felt he was entirely at fault for it. If he had been a little bit more like Magna, maybe he would’ve known to be more careful with his actions. Magna never seemed that bothered by their usual bickering, so he never would’ve guessed it had marked him that way. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>To think that Magna would be willing to stay by his side even if he thought that all that mattered to Luck was that he’d get to spar whenever he wanted...someone to pick on and that wouldn’t get mad at him for it. When it came down to it, was that really what Magna thought about their relationship? </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He’s never seen him act or think this negatively before. This was another side of him Luck hadn’t known about, and the fact that </span>
  <em>
    <span>he </span>
  </em>
  <span>was the reason for it was being seen now was devastating.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I don’t...I’ve never…” Luck tried. His crying was getting out of control. Which wasn’t really surprising, he was new to this whole crying thing so he didn’t even try to stop.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re more to me than just that!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luck sounded as if he had been attacked. When Magna finally looked up, he definitely looked like he sounded.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The boy had been crying so hard his entire face was red, eyes swollen and hands clenching the fabric of his tunic. His entire expression for itself pleaded of him to stop. That was </span>
  <em>
    <span>way</span>
  </em>
  <span> worse than how he had cried by the end of that fight. Magna was pretty sure he didn’t look so good himself, but the fact that Luck was feeling as strongly for this as he did was a surprise. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry…!! I didn’t mean to hurt you!! I’m not good at this stuff...I didn’t mean to make you feel this way…” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His voice was wavering so much he sounded like a kid. It broke Magna’s heart to pieces to see him cry like that.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You’re not weak...there’s so many things you do better than me!! S-So many…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His sobbing was making him out of breath so he had to stop talking for a while. Magna meant to wait for him to continue, but he couldn’t stop himself from speaking.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What exactly can I do better than you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That anyone could do things better than others was a given. It was natural, and Magna knew that he was better than him at being empathetic, for example, but none of it was relevant enough to point it out as some sort of higher quality if compared to his own skills.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Ah…” Luck made a sound as if he had taken a heavy hit, but tried to get it together enough to answer.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You make me feel a lot more special than I do you...!!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He sobbed loudly a couple times.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“If there’s anyone who isn’t worthy...it’s me…!!! B-But...if even so, you want me to stay...!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luck wasn’t even sure </span>
  <em>
    <span>where</span>
  </em>
  <span>. It’s not like if they had a fight so bad they couldn’t talk to each other anymore, one of them would have to go somewhere, or even quit being a magic knight. Forget even trying, their captain wouldn’t ever allow them use that as an excuse to run away from their problems. But Magna asked him not to leave...so...</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I won’t go anywhere!! I’ll stay by your side for as long as you want me to, so…!! Please teach me how to make things right!!!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Now was Magna’s turn to stare at him like he was crazy. </span>
  <em>
    <span>He</span>
  </em>
  <span> felt unworthy of Magna? He couldn’t be hearing that right. No one had ever...even </span>
  <em>
    <span>wanted</span>
  </em>
  <span> to stay by his side before. Not like this. And then Luck dared to think he didn’t make him feel just as special...</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>That was enough.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“You idiot.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Magna hugged Luck again. With both arms, this time. As if he were afraid Luck would run from him at any moment, despite what he had just said. He would grow strong enough to never let him get out of his grasp even if he tried after this. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luck hugged him back as strongly as he could, but was careful not to hurt Magna in the process because he was tired of doing that. He didn’t want to hurt him ever again.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Instead of giving each other another chance like they had initially thought would happen if all went right, they gave themselves another chance to do better now that they knew neither wanted to leave in the first place.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was interesting how many things could change in one day, and how one day could seem like an eternity. And how many feelings one could learn existed in the span of that time, and how a single person could be the reason for bringing all these feelings to life. </span>
</p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>It was interesting how that same person also had the power to make time completely irrelevant, while simultaneously becoming the most relevant thing in the world.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Who knows how long they stayed there like that. Just like they were scared to talk to each other, they were scared of letting each other go. One of them had their legs give out and they clutched themselves even closer to each other as they sat on the floor. They weren’t sure who. Or was it the both of them? It didn’t matter, really. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>But when they had to let go, they’d have to work really hard. Right now they were hiding their faces in each other’s shoulders, but neither of them had any idea how to look at the other after hugging like this. All of this was very new to them, and acting so out of character was exhausting too. They’d probably sleep like rocks today. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And probably wake just as stiff as one, seeing as how the two of them had cried themselves to sleep in that exact position.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Luckily for them, Finral used his magic to get them into bed. He had been listening to the entire conversation by creating a small portal the size of his ear and listening through it, in case something went wrong. And also, their captain was <em>scary.</em></span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ohh man, this is the longest chapter so far. I didn't write everything in the same day so I'm worried it's kind of inconsistent, but I hope I could've dealt with that situation properly :"))) I'm sorry my writing is not the best. It might sound like this is the end, but the story will go on for a bit longer since, you know, they gotta get together &amp; i wanna do that at a reasonable pacing lol</p><p> hope you guys are enjoying the story so far!! ♥</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Heart Beat</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Feelings happen and it's wild</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>AHHH I'M SO SORRY THIS TOOK FOREVER!!! If you're not following me in social media, I got very busy with the Thunder Flames project (for more info, please visit www.thunderflames.net). Then I just got busy with life in general and I ended up not being able to write the next chapter. If I'm being honest, I intended to take a lot longer to write this, and now I'm unsure how frequently I'll be able to post new chapters but I'll do my best!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The bright sunlight and sound of birds chirping woke Magna up peacefully. He laid silently for a moment, trying to remember where and who he was because <em> man, </em>he had slept like he had died and just came back to life. It didn’t take him long to remember last night’s events, though, and he started feeling somewhat embarrassed. Shit, what the hell… now that all that had calmed down, he felt pretty stupid. If only he was able to control his emotions, all that panic wouldn’t have been necessary. He had cried so much a headache still lingered, and his throat was a little sore. Nothing that a cup or two of water wouldn’t solve, though. He bet Luck must be feeling even worse than h–</p><p> </p><p>Wait a minute.</p><p> </p><p>Didn’t… they end up falling asleep on the floor? … Together?!</p><p> </p><p>Magna got up in a <em> flash </em> and started looking around. Had they really slept together?! Where was Luck?! Was he okay?! How’d he end up in bed anyway? Did Luck put him there and then go to his own room? But he was sure Luck had fallen asleep just as hard as he had… </p><p> </p><p>He sighed. In the very least, he couldn’t spot him anywhere now. Which… made him kind of relieved. He had no idea how he would’ve reacted if the first thing he saw when he woke up was Luck. </p><p> </p><p>…?</p><p> </p><p>“Nervous”, he spoke to himself. Was he still worried over something? That last thought had his heart skipping a beat. Huh. Maybe he’d have to see Luck to find out.</p><p> </p><p>Well, no point in dwelling over what happened. It was a brand new day and they had work to do. Magna looked for some fresh clothes to wear–actually, he should take a bath. He hadn’t had the opportunity to do so yesterday after he came back from work. </p><p> </p><p>… Now that he thought about it, <em> yuck </em> . All that hard work had made him really sweaty and he actually hated going to sleep without at least throwing some water over his body or something. Hygiene is important, and a man who is truly a <em> man </em> should be manly enough to keep himself sparkly clean, damn it!!</p><p> </p><p>He was all out of his usual outfit though, so he’d have to settle for some other clothes he usually used when he went out to train by himself. For some reason, he felt kind of uncomfortable wearing them around the team–probably because of the fact they didn’t look delinquent-ish at all. Not that they were special, either. A sleeveless black shirt and dark navy jogger pants. Just plain, simple clothes that made him look… not as threatening as his usual delinquent-ish outfit. He still had a spare pair of gloves and sunglasses, though, and was most definitely using them.</p><p> </p><p>But it was alright. Not like he’d spend most of his day around the team anyway. He’d probably go back to Rayaka or one of the other peasant towns because none of the other magic knights seemed too intent on lending a hand to those places. Fear not, fellow underprivileged people!! Magna’s work was worth the manpower of a hundred men!! Ha ha ha!!</p><p> </p><p>He smiled to himself as he thought about asking Charmy to mass produce food to take with him for the community; asking Vanessa to see if she could help stitch some of their clothes up and maybe Finral would be kind enough to give him another ride so he could save his own mana. He wondered if Noelle would make some drinking water with her magic? In any case, any water would be great, and Magna would be sure to ask her before he left. … Maybe he could just ask her to dump a massive water ball on him and call it a quick shower. He could dry himself up using his own magic, by toning flames down to heat and all. </p><p> </p><p>That sounded like a solid plan to him, so he got dressed and headed downstairs. For some reason, the hideout seemed to be built exactly as it had been yesterday. Was Henry tired or something? He’d go check up on him if it wouldn’t cost him his entire mana power and probably his soul too. That disease the landlord had on him was no joke. Thank God Asta showed up. If it weren’t for him, they probably would’ve remained oblivious to the fact that “ghost” was actually a person. At least until their Captain decided to let them know at some point.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, Magna! You’re up. How are you feeling?”</p><p> </p><p>The first person to greet him was Finral. He was looking at him with kind eyes, albeit somewhat surprised to see him dressed differently. Magna was thankful that he wasn’t being judgemental about it, or what had happened yesterday.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m doing better. Slept really well. Say, have you seen Noelle?” He really needed that quick shower.</p><p> </p><p>"That’s great. She’s outside with Asta. And, uh… Luck.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh.”</p><p> </p><p>Okay. That’s fine. Luck is there too. Great. </p><p> </p><p>Would be even better if his heart could calm down a little. Geez. It was beating so unnecessarily fast.</p><p> </p><p>Magna quickly thanked him and ran outside. Finral wondered if Magna had any idea just what sort of face he had made just now. As empathetic as he was, the sheer panic in the boy’s eyes was rather comical. It had seemed to him that they had figured things out yesterday, but now he thought they might’ve just started a whole new problem.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>“Ahahahaha~! That was fun! Do it again!”</p><p> </p><p>“N-No!! Don’t do it, Asta!”</p><p> </p><p>“Yessir!!!”</p><p> </p><p>“Asta!!”</p><p> </p><p>And there he went, charging full throttle at a tree, so hard it was dangerously close to being taken down by the sheer force of his tackle. </p><p> </p><p>“Ahahahaha!! Almost, almost~! One more time, Asta!”</p><p> </p><p>Luck was thoroughly enjoying the situation. Noelle wasn’t sure whether she was more panicked or annoyed by it.</p><p> </p><p>“Stop it, you two!! What are you even doing this for?!”</p><p> </p><p>“We’ll use the wood to help rebuild furniture in the capital!” Asta said, while sliding down the trunk. He had jumped quite high.</p><p> </p><p>“There are so many other ways you could take it down!!”</p><p> </p><p>“This way is a lot more fun~! Go, Asta!!”</p><p> </p><p>“Um… hi.”</p><p> </p><p>Magna’s voice was low, but everyone turned to look at him. For some reason, he immediately looked away. His heartbeat still hadn’t calmed down. </p><p> </p><p>“Mister Magna! Are you feeling better? You looked really tired yesterday!”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, I-yeah! I’m doing great!! Ready to roll! Need any help taking that tree down, Asta?” He said, trying to regain composure.</p><p> </p><p>“No, sir!! Thank you, sir!! It’s a matter of honor, sir!! I’ll handle it alone, sir!!" The boy flexed his arms as if to prove his point. He had those characteristic sparkly eyes, full of determination, as he got ready to jump harder at the tree.</p><p> </p><p>“Hell yeah!! Go for it, you funky brat!! Show us what you’ve got!!”</p><p> </p><p>“Yessir!!! HWOOOAAAAHHH!!!”</p><p> </p><p>Thud.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Crack. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Oh. </p><p> </p><p>…Oh. </p><p> </p><p>Was it just him, or…? Was the tree falling in his direction?!</p><p> </p><p>“WHOA!”</p><p> </p><p>It came down quickly with a deafening thud, so close to everyone the sound of the leaves falling hurt their ears.</p><p> </p><p>“Mister Magna!!”</p><p> </p><p>Asta immediately got off the tree as he called out for his senior. Noelle and Luck rushed to take a closer look.</p><p> </p><p>“SEE, YOU IDIOT?! This is what happens when you’re reckless like that!! Mister Magna, stay with us!!”</p><p> </p><p>“Bwahahahaha!! That was awesome, Asta!! Almost got me killed, though!”</p><p> </p><p>The three of them looked up to find Magna hanging from a tree branch. The quick reflexes he had honed with battle experiences came to good use as he managed to evade getting hit by the tree, even while still not fully recovered from his wounds. His juniors looked relieved. Luck just stared.</p><p> </p><p>Well, although that didn’t help his heartbeat get back to normal, it did give him an excuse to put the blame on the incident. Not that he had anyone questioning him about anything. He jumped down from the branch near the group and avoided looking at Luck again.</p><p> </p><p>“Say, Lady Noelle! Could you hit me with one of those water balls?”</p><p> </p><p>“Wh-!? Wasn’t almost getting killed by the tree enough?! Are you suicidal?!!”</p><p> </p><p>“Hahaha! No, that’s not it. The people back at Rayaka need my help, so I don’t want to take too long taking a bath.”</p><p> </p><p>“O-Oh. But then you’ll get drenched…”</p><p> </p><p>“I can use my fire magic to dry myself. C’mon. Please?”</p><p> </p><p>“Hmph. I guess there’s no choice. You better be thankful for getting help from a royal such as myself.”</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah, yeah, thank you very much, your majesty,” Magna said while opening his arms and looking down to protect his face from the water that was going to fall from above him.</p><p> </p><p>It felt a lot less harsh than he had thought it would. Noelle had gotten really good at controlling her magic! It felt uncomfortable to be drenched while wearing clothes, but it was so refreshing and he was so thankful for it. </p><p> </p><p>“Woo!! Haha! That felt great!! Can I have another one?!”</p><p> </p><p>“I-If you insist!” She was never going to admit she was proud of it out loud.</p><p> </p><p>The second one successfully removed all the gel he had in his hair. Whether that made him look less threatening or not he wasn’t sure, but, goodness, he really should start asking Noelle for these more often. They were so good, it definitely boosted his mood and made him feel a lot better than he was a few moments ago. As he started drying himself with heat, he removed his glasses and started laughing, looking genuinely happy.</p><p> </p><p>“Thank you, Lady Noelle!!”</p><p> </p><p>“I-It’s not a problem,” she closed her eyes and turned her head to the side, but was also genuinely happy to help. It was relieving that Magna looked like he was doing better. He had looked awful yesterday…</p><p> </p><p>Speaking of yesterday…</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Well?” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> They were all standing close to Finral as he created a small portal for his ear to reach Magna’s room. He had been giving them live updates of the overall progress of the situation as it all went down, but they still had to talk in low voices so they wouldn’t be heard. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “They seem to be fine for now,” Finral smiled as he sighed in relief. Everyone else did the same. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “What were they talking about, after all?” Asked Vanessa. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Uh…  I don’t think it’s my place to say…“ </em>
</p><p> </p><p><b> <em>“Then you’re sure it won’t come to bite us in the ass later, right?” </em> </b> <em> Their Captain said with a terrifying aura surrounding him. </em></p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Um!!!” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Yami sighed. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “What Vanessa said earlier was right. If they have a problem they can’t solve on their own, covering for them won’t be of any help. We’re in the middle of a crisis. We can’t afford to have them be more troubled than we all already are.” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Yes, you’re right, Captain… but, still… I can’t invade their privacy more than I have… I truly believe this is something you have to hear from them, if they even want to share at all…” Finral said, bracing himself as he was completely put on the spot. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “I’ll look after them,” Vanessa intervened. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> They both gave her a questioning look, but said nothing. She continued, “Luck is my little brother! It’s only natural I take care of him, right? I’ll make sure he and Magna will be okay. Leave it to me!” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “Alright. Then you take responsibility too, Finral,” said Yami. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “What?!!” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> “You already know all that’s going on between them. Help Vanessa deal with this, stat.” </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> No one dared argue against Yami’s orders.  </em>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Noelle couldn’t lie to herself. She was curious, and wondered if Vanessa had talked to Luck already.</p><p> </p><p>“Um, Luck,” she started.</p><p> </p><p>He had his back turned to Magna, who was now congratulating Asta again for taking the tree down. </p><p> </p><p>The sound of his laughter… his smile… for some reason… </p><p> </p><p>“... Luck?”</p><p> </p><p>“Y-Yes?!”</p><p> </p><p>He instinctively clutched his chest while his heart beated wildly inside it. It was making him feel dizzy and light on his feet. </p><p> </p><p>“Are… you okay? Your face is all red…”</p><p> </p><p>He could only stare. Was he okay? That was a great question… </p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! I'm way more active on my social media so if you need me, I'll be on Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr, @crazycookiemaniac! ♥ I'll try to post the next chapter ASAP!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Fever</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>My friend usually reads chapters over for me but she wasn't able to this time, so I apologize in advance for grammatical errors! English is not my first language!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>This was definitely odd. The only time Luck’s heart started beating faster was when he got excited about fighting. This shouldn’t be happening... </p><p> </p><p>“Are you okay, Luck?”</p><p> </p><p>“Wh- yeah! I-I’m fine! Just a bit dizzy…”</p><p> </p><p>“Maybe you’re sick…? You look like you have a fever…”</p><p> </p><p>A fever? Oh. Was that it?</p><p> </p><p>“What’s wrong? Is there some sort of problem going on?” Magna asked as he and Asta approached the two.</p><p> </p><p>“Ouch,” Luck clutched his chest tighter. His heart had skipped a beat, and then hit harder than usual when it returned to normal.</p><p> </p><p>“Luck doesn’t seem to be feeling well…” Noelle said, worried.</p><p> </p><p>“What, for real?! What’s up? Your face is all red… what are you feeling?” Magna’s heart rate uncomfortably increased again, but this time it was because he was starting to get worried. </p><p> </p><p>“I, uh…” </p><p> </p><p>Whoa. This fever thing… that must be it. There’s no other explanation. He couldn’t recall ever experiencing anything like it before. Not to mention he was doing just fine a while ago…but now he was starting to sweat. This was weird… </p><p> </p><p>“Have you been overworking, Mister Luck?! That’s no good! You should rest for today!”</p><p> </p><p>“<em> You’re one to talk </em>,” Noelle silently complained.</p><p> </p><p>“No, I’m fine! I think I just need to wash my face and drink some water~” Luck tried speaking in his usual lively tone, but began to walk away a bit too quickly.</p><p> </p><p>“Are you sure? Do you need help?” Magna asked.</p><p> </p><p>His heart skipped a beat again. But now, there was a weird warmth growing in his chest too. It wasn’t uncomfortable, however. In truth, it was rather soothing. The fact that Magna was willing to help him, for some reason, was incredibly endearing to him.</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll be fine,” he answered sincerely with a smile, thinking it had been one of his usual ones… but it took the other three by surprise. Failing to notice it, he turned his back and walked towards the hideout.</p><p> </p><p>“Mister Luck…”</p><p> </p><p>“I wonder if he’ll really be alright…?” Noelle wondered out loud.</p><p> </p><p>Magna couldn’t say anything. In fact, he thought he would probably be unable to say anything ever again seeing that his heart seemed to have stopped right then and there. What was that smile…? He had never seen it on Luck before. His face lit up and glowed like he was the most blessed person alive at that moment. There were so many emotions behind it, Magna couldn’t pinpoint exactly what he was feeling the most. </p><p> </p><p>The only thing he did know was that Luck looked… absolutely beautiful.</p><p> </p><p>Which… seemed like a strange thought. But he couldn’t have been the only one to notice it, given Noelle’s and Asta’s reactions. He wondered to himself if their hearts were beating equally as strong as his right now.</p><p> </p><p>“W-Well, uh,” Magna started. “Where are you two headed now?”</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll go help the citizens out in the common realm today,” Asta answered.</p><p> </p><p>“Captain Yami asked me to write reports and send them to the Magic Knight Headquarters, so I’ll be doing that.”</p><p> </p><p>“Alright! Make sure to do a thorough job, you two. Like I said earlier, I’ll be at Rayaka if you need me. But, before that, have you guys seen Charmy and Vanessa?”</p><p> </p><p>“Ah, yessir! They’re both in the cafeteria right now. I heard them talk about distributing food for the citizens, or something along those lines?”</p><p> </p><p>Oh, they were already one step ahead of him. “Great! Thanks, Asta! I’ll go talk to them right now. Both of you, do your best!”</p><p> </p><p>“Of course!” Noelle and Asta answered simultaneously.</p><p> </p><p>He had intended to ask Vanessa to come with him, but now he thought it was best to ask her to keep an eye on Luck. It was concerning that he wasn’t feeling well. Had he eaten properly yesterday? Or had he really overworked himself? Magna found it hard to be the latter, the boy had energy to fight for days on end. But maybe he had to carry too much weight back and forth in the Kingdom? As athletic as he was, he didn’t have much muscle on him. Whatever it was, this was a terrible time for him to fall ill.</p><p> </p><p>Once Magna entered the hideout, Vanessa was already there with Luck, who was sitting on the couch holding a glass of water. She was talking to him in a low voice, but ended their conversation once she took notice of him. Finral, Charmy and Grey were also there. </p><p> </p><p>“Do you think he’ll be alright?” He asked her as she walked up to him.</p><p> </p><p>“Say… what happened yesterday?”</p><p> </p><p>“What?”</p><p> </p><p>“After you went to your room, and Luck followed you.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, um… We, uh, had some misunderstandings going on between us so we cleared it all up.”</p><p> </p><p>“What sort of misunderstandings?”</p><p> </p><p>“Uh… do we have to talk about this right now?”</p><p> </p><p>“I need to know whether to slap you or not so, yes, preferably.”</p><p> </p><p>“What?? Did I miss something?”</p><p> </p><p>“Luck said he started feeling a little sick after he saw you earlier this morning, and then it happened again just a while ago. You haven’t dared hurt his feelings, have you? Because if so, I <em> will </em> slap you.”</p><p> </p><p>“What?!” Magna looked towards Luck, who was now talking to Finral. Charmy was offering him food, and Grey was… being herself and hiding her face.</p><p> </p><p>“Well?”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m… pretty sure we settled everything yesterday. I thought we were good now, but… if needed, I can keep my distance. I never meant to hurt him.” </p><p> </p><p><em> ‘Great </em> ’, Magna thought as he started feeling guilty. He <em> did </em> make Luck cry pretty hard last night. But it didn’t seem to make sense to him. Why would seeing him make Luck feel sick? What did that even <em> mean </em>? That smile he gave to him a few moments ago made things even more confusing.</p><p> </p><p>Vanessa sighed. “Alright. I trust you. I’ll keep an eye on him, but I’m not letting you out of my sight either.”</p><p> </p><p>“You… didn’t answer my question.”</p><p> </p><p>“What question?”</p><p> </p><p>“Do you think he’ll be alright?”, he repeated.</p><p> </p><p>“I don’t know. All he told me was what I just told you. Like I said, I’ll keep an eye on him, but maybe it really is good for you to keep your distance for the time being. Until I can find out what’s going on, that is.”</p><p> </p><p>“Alright… well, uh, I’ll leave him to you. Then, could you ask Charmy to stop by Rayaka later today for me? I wanted to ask her to use her magic for the citizens…”</p><p> </p><p>She sighed again and smiled. “Sure. I’ll let her know.”</p><p> </p><p>With that, Magna took one last look at Luck and left. He could already foresee not being able to focus on anything today again because of this. </p><p> </p><p>Looking through the window, Vanessa could see Magna stopping to punch himself in the face before flying off with his Crazy Cyclone. One more sigh left her lips as she looked back at Finral, who looked at her sympathetically in return. They both had a hunch on what might’ve been going on, but couldn’t confirm anything until the boys opened up to them. </p><p> </p><p>“What were you assigned to do today?” Finral asked Luck.</p><p> </p><p>“I was supposed to go along with Asta to the common realm.”</p><p> </p><p>“I see. Well, if you think you can handle it, you can go after a few minutes. But take it easy today, alright? It won’t do you any good to force yourself too much. I’ll come by later to check up on you and give you a ride back if you feel unwell.”</p><p> </p><p>“Eeh~ you’re being awfully considerate of me. That’s kind of creepy.”</p><p> </p><p>“Hey!! I’m your superior!!”</p><p> </p><p>“Ahahahaha~!”</p><p> </p><p>Luck seemed to be able to have a normal conversation with the others, but the mere thought of Magna made his stomach feel weird. Like there were butterflies flying inside it. </p><p> </p><p>...Maybe he had swallowed some during the night?! But then they would’ve died, wouldn’t they…? Yeah, no, that was an irrational theory. Never mind. The sensation was very… different from what he was used to feeling every day. </p><p> </p><p>“Eat something before you go! You won’t be able to do anything if you’re hungry!” Charmy said, while offering him some muffins. Luck gratefully took one of them as he stood up.</p><p> </p><p>“I’ll eat it on my way to the village. Thanks, guys!”</p><p> </p><p>“H-Hey! I said after a few minutes!!”</p><p> </p><p>“Bye bye~”</p><p> </p><p>“Listen to your superior!!!”</p><p> </p><p>Luck left.</p><p> </p><p>Finral started to tear up.</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t mind, Finral! Here, have a muffin! It’ll surely lift your spirits up!” Charmy offered, in her usual lively tone.</p><p> </p><p>“Why does no one respect me in this house…” Finral mumbled as he covered his face with his hands.</p><p> </p><p>“My, my…” Vanessa looked out the window to see Luck rushing to his broom and quickly flying off. “Why the rush?”</p><p> </p><p>“Right… if only had listened to his superior…”</p><p> </p><p>“Let’s go, Finral.”</p><p> </p><p>“What? Go where?”</p><p> </p><p>“After him, of course! We have to take responsibility for him, remember?”</p><p> </p><p>“Does taking responsibility mean we have to stalk him?!”</p><p> </p><p>“Not stalking! Looking after!”</p><p> </p><p>“I said I’d stop by later!”</p><p> </p><p>“Listen, do you want to figure out what’s going on between them or not?!”</p><p> </p><p>“Fine, fine, I get it! Sheesh, I don’t even get to mope around a bit! You guys sure love stepping on my feelings!!”</p><p> </p><p>Charmy happily listened to their convo while chomping on her muffins, as well as using her Cotton Sheep magic to make some more.</p><p> </p><p>“Hurry, let’s go!” Vanessa said as she rushed Finral outside. Before she closed the door, she called out to Charmy. “Stop by Rayaka later, would you? Magna wants you to cook for his people.”</p><p> </p><p>“Roger that!”</p><p>
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</p><p>Luck recalled a moment earlier this morning. </p><p>
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</p><p>
  <em> The sunlight woke him up, as well as the sound of the birds chirping. It took him a while to open his eyes. He was unusually comfortable and his mind was blank. It wasn’t his intention to think about anything at all, until he opened his eyes and found Magna mere inches apart. Luck could only stare. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Magna was a very expressive man. Even while sleeping, he made faces as he instinctively reacted to his dreams. But, right now, his expression was the most peaceful Luck had ever seen him wear. His eyes traced the curves and edges of his face and, just like he had always suspected, Magna was indeed very handsome. The thought made his heart start to race, and his body acted on its own as Luck lifted his hand from under the covers to touch Magna’s cheek. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> That… was a different sensation. He had never touched anyone’s face like this before. It all felt so incredibly real, like time had stopped and his whole world was focusing only on this moment. It was such a simple gesture, yet so intimate Luck wasn’t even sure it was alright for him to be doing this at all. It didn’t feel wrong to him, so he kept his hand in place until his body moved on its own accord again. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> His hand trailed down Magna’s neck and stopped at his collarbone. He moved his legs so they’d be touching the other pair under the sheets. All the while, Luck had his eyes on Magna’s closed ones to see if he would react. He brought his hand up the man’s neck and face again, moving it behind his ear and onto his hair, brushing it gently. Luck’s face grew hot as his heartbeat increased. This was all so new, he thought he might’ve been feeling some sort of sickness. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> He wasn’t sure for how long he kept brushing Magna’s hair, but it caused him to sigh in his sleep. It made his lips part and, finally, Luck shifted his gaze to stare at them instead. He wondered what he was dreaming about. He wondered what he would dream about, if…  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> … Before he noticed, he was leaning in to close the gap between them. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> He had never thought about kissing someone before. He never really cared for anyone. Not like this. But now, he was so tempted to do it he almost couldn’t stop himself. He wasn’t the most knowledgeable about this sort of stuff, but knew enough to know this wasn’t something he was allowed to do without consent. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Would Magna ever even consent to it anyway? After all, he was a man himself. Luck didn’t really care, but he wasn’t sure of what the other thought of it. They never talked about these things, and he had never seen Magna show any romantic interest in anyone either.  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Luck touched their foreheads together and whispered an apology. He stayed a few moments like that before he decided to get up and give Magna some space. </em>
</p><p>
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</p><p>And then, just a few minutes ago… his heart reacted to Magna again, even more strongly than earlier. Maybe because he had been awake this time. What was happening to him? Was this really some sort of sickness like he had thought? A fever, like Noelle suggested? Some part of him knew, though, that maybe the word to describe it was… attraction. Could that be considered an illness?</p><p> </p><p>Luck had so many questions. He couldn’t understand most of what was happening to him. All he knew is, this was definitely dangerous. He and Magna had just talked about their feelings and, now, new ones had emerged from God knows where. Or maybe they were all already there, and their conversation only brought them to light. Who knew. </p><p> </p><p>He thought he should probably keep his distance, but, at the same time, he wanted to stay close. He wondered if these feelings would go away with time. Maybe if he focused on his job today, they’ll go away by the time they see each other again.</p><p> </p><p>Today was going to be a long day.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Things are starting to get fun now! I already have half of the next chapter written, I hope to publish it sometime around next week! Thank you for your patience!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Uncertainty</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hope you guys enjoy this new chapter! I also had no one read this one over for me so, once again, I apologize for any grammatical errors. I decided I'll stop asking my friend to proof read this overall because she's really busy and I don't want to bug her with this. So please bear with my poor English!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Magna reached Rayaka a tad later than expected, seeing as his spacing out made him drive the Crazy Cyclone slower than usual. He couldn’t stop thinking about Luck. Neither would he be capable of doing so along the day, it seemed, since the first thing he heard once he stepped on land was:</p><p> </p><p>“How are things going with your friend?”</p><p> </p><p>“Well,” he replied, “We talked yesterday when I came back home, but I think things are still… a little tense right now.”</p><p> </p><p>“Really? How so?”</p><p> </p><p>He immediately regretted throwing that fit in front of everyone. He really didn’t want to talk about this today, because… weird feelings emerged from reminding how hurt Luck had looked when crying the way he did. So many things happened in so little time, it was overwhelming.</p><p> </p><p>“Let’s just say that the problem isn’t… fully solved yet. B-By the way I heard your brother is getting married?”</p><p> </p><p>Thankfully he had remembered hearing that info from people he couldn’t recall right now. The person he was talking to was now joyfully going on about how the couple had met and how they planned on starting a family. Magna wasn’t particularly interested in the story, but it did make him wonder…</p><p> </p><p>… Would Luck ever want to get married to someone?</p><p> </p><p>He didn’t seem the type of person to care for romance. But, people change with time don’t they? No matter how crazy Luck was, he was no exception. There was still so much he had to live ahead of him, who knew if someone would ever be able to steal his heart. Magna wondered what type of person he found attractive. That is, if he even cared for appearances at all. Or did he prioritize personality traits over physical ones? As much as he enjoyed fighting, would he prefer someone to fight with, against, or someone to protect? </p><p> </p><p>Magna’s heart clenched. He didn’t like this. Not one bit.</p><p> </p><p>The thought that, someday, someone else would crash onto his life just like Luck crashed on his own and turn it upside down… someone who would make him fall in love with them and want to start a long lasting relationship, because Luck didn’t seem the type to start one just for the heck of it and break up later… No. This, for some reason, sounded so wrong.</p><p> </p><p>After all… what about Magna? What would become of their friendship? He didn’t want to be cast aside. He didn’t want Luck to stop hanging out with him because he’d much rather be with someone else. Someone he cared for more than him… No. He didn’t want that. He <em> really </em> didn’t want that.</p><p> </p><p>… But, why not?</p><p> </p><p>Luck was his friend. He should be able to root for him and his happiness. If that’s what Luck might want eventually, then he needs to support him… not wanting for him to fall in love was so selfish.</p><p> </p><p>Magna mentally slapped himself.</p><p> </p><p>Maybe he was just caught off guard by a thought that never would’ve crossed his mind if it weren’t for this conversation he was having with this person. Maybe he should start thinking about it more often, and considering it… and getting used to it. Because the chances that might happen are big, right?</p><p> </p><p>Even Luck could fall in love, right?</p><p> </p><p>And whoever he falls in love with will be the luckiest person on Earth. Because Luck was special. Someone who might bring out those sorts of feelings from him… will probably be special too.</p><p> </p><p>More special than Magna ever was to Luck.</p><p> </p><p>… </p><p> </p><p>“And then they were talking about having two kids! One would be hard enough to raise, but the more, the merrier!”</p><p> </p><p>What would Luck’s children look like?</p><p> </p><p><em> ‘Cute’, </em> was the first thought that came to mind. Because Luck was really cute. T-That was a fact. Common sense. Obvious. Of course. The boy looked like an angel. He had a cute smile and his eyes were big and really pretty. He could look scary when he wanted to, but he was also… What was the word? Elegant? Magna was pretty sure he never used this word before in his life. But Luck had a delicate body, and his lightning armor fit him like a glove. He also looked really cool at the same time. And invincible. And… beautiful. How could a single person look so many different ways?</p><p> </p><p>Anyway, his children… yeah, they would probably look just as beautiful. Magna hoped the woman’s genes, whoever she was, wouldn’t ruin Luck’s. If they turned out looking more like her instead it would be such a waste. </p><p> </p><p>“... Mister magic knight?”</p><p> </p><p>“Wh-Huh? Yeah?”</p><p> </p><p>“Why are you crying…?”</p><p> </p><p>What?</p><p> </p><p>“I, uh, no I’m not?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes you are?”</p><p> </p><p>“No, I’m not. I mean. Uh. I got dust on my eyes.”</p><p> </p><p>“Sir… you are sobbing.”</p><p> </p><p>Was he?</p><p> </p><p>Oh. There he was again, being the center of attention. He just noticed a small crowd had formed around him again, all staring at him, worried.</p><p><br/>“... I’m sorry.” Was all Magna could say, after a while.</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t be. You’re going through a lot right now, right? Why don’t you rest a bit?”</p><p> </p><p>“No! I’m fine. I mean, I’ll be fine. I can still work.”</p><p> </p><p>“Really? But sit down, just for a few minutes. Until you’ve cried all you need to cry. Okay?”</p><p> </p><p>“... Okay. I, um, I’m really happy for your brother. Tell him I said congrats.”</p><p> </p><p>The person smiled kindly. “Will do!”</p><p> </p><p>Time out for Magna. Damn. Since when did he become such a crybaby? He felt pathetic. Why would Luck’s potential happy future with his potential future wife and potential future children be so saddening? That was so stupid. Luck deserved to be happy. If that’s what he potentially wanted, then Magna should be happy for him too. Not sad, much less crying the way he was right now.</p><p> </p><p>And yet…</p><p> </p><p>He couldn’t stop crying.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Luck knew couples were a thing, of course. Even if he never cared, it was common sense that they were all over the place.</p><p> </p><p>But, <em> wow </em> , they really were <em> all over the place. </em></p><p> </p><p>Holding hands, talking in low voices to each other, smiling at each other, blushing… none of them seemed to care to do any of that in public. They were probably too caught up in their own world to care. It made him curious about how it felt to have a significant other… so much he decided to straight up ask one of the couples.</p><p> </p><p>“Hey, excuse me… sorry to interrupt. Is it alright if I ask you a question?”</p><p> </p><p>The couple stopped giggling to look at him. They seemed to be in the best mood of their lives, even when their entire village had been destroyed.</p><p> </p><p>“I was wondering…”</p><p> </p><p>This was a very difficult question to ask, Luck had just found out. He started feeling somewhat embarrassed, but the couple encouraged him to go on.</p><p> </p><p>“What, um… what does it feel like to be in love?”</p><p> </p><p>That wasn’t exactly what he had meant to ask but it was close enough.</p><p> </p><p>The couple immediately blushed and looked away, shyly giggling. Luck thought it was strange. They were publicly displaying affection, so what reason did they have to look so shy now? </p><p> </p><p>"Oh, it's wonderful! He makes me feel complete!" The woman said smiling, both eyes closed and hands on her chest. </p><p> </p><p>"She makes me feel complete too!" </p><p> </p><p>"Aaw, darling~!" </p><p> </p><p>They started giggling again. </p><p> </p><p>"I don't get it." Luck said flatly.                                                                  </p><p> </p><p> "Maybe you're too young to understand…" </p><p> </p><p>"Or, perhaps!" The lady said, excitedly, "Do you think you're in love too?!" </p><p> </p><p>"W-What?" </p><p> </p><p>"Ooh, so that's why! Hmm, let's see… When you love someone, they always find their way into your mind. They make your heart beat stronger, and you want to stay close to them as much as possible even if being around them makes you nervous sometimes." The man said, thoughtfully. </p><p> </p><p>"Before you know it, all of your choices take your loved one into consideration, and you'll always want to do things together! Being with them feels right and comfortable, and you feel invincible when you're together!" </p><p> </p><p>"Invincible…" Luck repeated.</p><p> </p><p>"You can always count on them to have your back whenever you need it, and there's no one else you'd rather be with!"</p><p> </p><p>Luck stayed silent. That… sure was a lot of information he had no idea what to do with.</p><p> </p><p>"So! Who's the lucky girl?" The man whispered to him playfully. </p><p> </p><p>"... Girl?" </p><p> </p><p>"Yeah! The one that stole your heart!"</p><p> </p><p>"Tell us, how do you feel about her?" </p><p> </p><p>"I… well…" </p><p> </p><p>Luck wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say. Why was he even asking about this sort of stuff, anyway? It wasn't important, was it?</p><p> </p><p>"Him. Not her." </p><p> </p><p>The words just came out of his mouth before he had the chance to even think. </p><p> </p><p>The couple smiled at him, and then at each other. Luck felt his face start to go hot and instinctively looked away. </p><p> </p><p>"Say, kid, what's your name?" The man asked him. </p><p> </p><p>"Luck…" </p><p> </p><p>"Well, Luck. Do you think you're in love?" </p><p> </p><p>"No…? No, that's not it. I just asked because I suddenly realized how there are so many couples around and got curious about it…"   </p><p> </p><p>"But you have someone on your mind." The woman said. </p><p> </p><p>"Yes." Luck answered without thinking again. "I mean, no. I don't." He corrected himself. </p><p> </p><p>The woman giggled. "Well, why don't you try paying closer attention to your feelings?” </p><p> </p><p>"Right…" </p><p> </p><p>Luck had almost kissed Magna this morning, but he wasn't sure what exactly was going on with him. Noelle suggested a fever, which matched his original thoughts of it being some sort of sickness… The word "attraction" stuck to the back of his mind too, but… Love? That wasn't it. That couldn't be it. </p><p> </p><p>… Could it? </p><p> </p><p>He quickly excused himself and got back to work. Today required extra focus on the tasks at hand. Anything to get his mind off of this whole… Fever-attraction-sort-of-thing that was going on. After all, Magna wasn't around right now and they both had a lot to do. </p><p> </p><p>As promised, though, Finral showed up after a few hours to check up on Luck. He thanked him and assured (read: lied to) the other that he was okay, so his superior lost no time in rushing to flirt with girls. </p><p> </p><p>Luck followed him with his eyes. What was so good about flirting with strangers? It seemed Finral wanted to be in a romantic relationship, but wasn't love something hard to achieve? After what that couple had told him a while ago, it had seemed to him like something unique rather than something able to be built quickly, after going on a date or two. </p><p> </p><p>Finral could sense Luck’s eyes on him and turned back once he got his invitation to drink tea rejected once again.</p><p> </p><p>“Is there something wrong? Are you still feeling sick, after all?” he looked and sounded defeated despite being used to rejection.</p><p> </p><p>“Why do you hit on girls so often?”</p><p> </p><p>“Isn’t it obvious that I want a girlfriend?”</p><p> </p><p>“I mean, yes. But why?”</p><p> </p><p>“Why, you ask? Hmm, how to put it… see, look at that couple, over there!”</p><p> </p><p>“I see them.”</p><p> </p><p>“Look at how happy they are! Couples always seem to enjoy life so much more than single people do! Don’t you think it’s nice to have someone to look after and have them look after you too? To have someone think about you and care for you as much as you think and care about them… Don’t you think it’s a wonderful thing?”</p><p> </p><p>“Is it?”</p><p> </p><p>“Gosh, Luck. You really only care about fighting, don’t you?”</p><p> </p><p>“No. I care for other things too.”</p><p> </p><p>“Okay, name one thing and convince me otherwise.”</p><p> </p><p>“Like… picking on Magna.”</p><p> </p><p>“That’s because you want him to fight you!!”</p><p> </p><p>“No, I do it because it’s fun.”</p><p> </p><p>“Because you have fun fighting.”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes.”</p><p> </p><p>Finral sighed.</p><p> </p><p>“But… fighting Magna is a different kind of fun.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh?”</p><p> </p><p>“Every time we fight, it’s like we get to know more about each other. We don’t fight to win. It’s like… another way of talking, but physically.”</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah… I’m pretty sure you two are the only one who get it.”</p><p> </p><p>“We don’t hurt each other. We learn our strengths and weaknesses, and push each other towards improving our skills. We can tell when the other isn’t okay, and fighting together makes everything okay again.”</p><p> </p><p>“... So, basically… what you’re saying is, fighting is how you two look after each other?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes.”</p><p> </p><p>“And… since you’re always learning with and about each other, you think about one another constantly. Correct?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p> </p><p>“You do understand that, according to my previous description of couples, you and Magna could be considered one as well?”</p><p> </p><p>Luck went silent.</p><p> </p><p>“Luck. What is Magna to you?”</p><p> </p><p>Luck stayed silent.</p><p> </p><p>They were friends, right? Of course they were. But Luck was also friends with every other Black Bull, and none of them were as close to him as Magna. So that would make Magna his best friend. But now Finral was saying they could be considered a couple, according to his own description. And then there was that talk he had with that couple a few hours ago… And… Luck had tried to kiss Magna this morning...This was confusing.</p><p> </p><p>After all, what were they?</p><p>
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<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Love</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>!!THIS CHAPTER IS NSFW!!</p><p>I hope to God I did this right :^)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Today had been exhausting for both Magna, who had been under worried stares at all times and Luck, who had been surrounded by couples. In the end, Finral had helped Luck and the others do the work and they both returned home together by dawn. Magna, on the other hand, had once again stayed until late in the night in his hometown. He wanted to be of help, of course, but he really didn't want to go back to the hideout so soon. He kept crying constantly throughout the day and he was pretty sure he couldn't use the same excuse as last time again, so he made sure to get it together in the last couple hours so his face didn't look as shitty as it did before. Thankfully he hadn’t met Charmy there.</p><p> </p><p>Praying Luck was already asleep, he carefully entered the hideout and, thankfully, found no one there. It was quiet, and seemed like everyone else had gone to sleep as well. Sighing out in relief, Magna took his shoes off and sat down on the floor, his arms resting on his bended knees and his head on his arms. God, he was a mess. </p><p> </p><p>He couldn't get Luck out of his mind. Nor his potential future relationship with someone else. This was all so weird. He couldn't remember ever thinking about this sort of stuff before this whole incident. He wondered if he'd be as troubled as he is right now if he did and… Yeah, probably. They had always been together since day one. Luck had never shown any interest in girls or romance, at least not when he was around… Which was most of the time. So he never had any reason to worry. But, after holding him close, both after the fight and yesterday… He didn't want anyone else doing the same with him. Not like that. He guessed he wouldn't mind if, say, Vanessa hugged him, or anyone from the Black Bulls… But other than them, he didn't want anyone else getting too close to Luck. Which was a very selfish thought and Magna hated himself for it.</p><p> </p><p>Ah, his heart was clenching again. Tears just naturally fell down his face in response. He could fill up a whole river with the amount of crying he had been doing lately. Why was he even crying so much? It's not like Luck would go anywhere, or just automatically forget he existed or whatever if he fell in love… They could still be good friends. </p><p> </p><p>"Magna." </p><p> </p><p>Oh. Shit.</p><p> </p><p>He flinched. That was Luck's voice. </p><p> </p><p>"Yeah?" He answered, without looking up. </p><p> </p><p>"Are you crying?" </p><p> </p><p>"... Yeah. A little."</p><p> </p><p>"What happened?" </p><p> </p><p>"Not much. Just stressed." </p><p> </p><p>"Really?" </p><p> </p><p>Magna didn't answer. He could hear Luck's footsteps getting closer, and him kneeling down in front of him.</p><p> </p><p>"Hey."</p><p> </p><p>Luck placed a hand on Magna's arm. He didn't answer. </p><p> </p><p>"Look at me." </p><p> </p><p>More silence from Magna, save from the sound of his tears falling on the floor. He didn't want to look at Luck. He was sure he looked pathetic. Not to mention, there was no way he could ever bring up the reason he was crying in the first place. Luck would definitely be weirded out. </p><p> </p><p>A few moments passed. Magna didn't look like he'd move any time soon, and Luck didn't want to just leave him there. He couldn't. </p><p> </p><p>Without thinking, Luck started combing his fingers through Magna's hair. It was soothing, and strangely reassuring. His shoulders started to shake as the gesture only made him cry harder. But Luck didn't stop. </p><p> </p><p>"Luck…" </p><p> </p><p>He hummed in response. </p><p> </p><p>Magna stayed silent for a few more moments before he slowly raised his head to look at him. Luck's expression softened. A sigh escaped his lips as he resumed combing through his hair. Magna looked like a lost puppy. </p><p> </p><p>Who knows for how long they sat there looking at each other. Luck tried to understand what was going on through Magna's head, but all he could read from his eyes was fear and sadness. Although he didn't seem like he was going to say anything, his tears ceased to fall eventually. </p><p> </p><p>"Magna." </p><p> </p><p>He stayed silent. </p><p> </p><p>"You look tired. Let’s go to your room."</p><p> </p><p>“... Okay.”</p><p> </p><p>Luck stood up and reached his hand out to Magna, who slowly took it and stood up as well. Their hands, however, stayed connected, and neither made a move to release the other. There was no one around, anyway, so they were at no risk of being teased. And even if there were, neither of them would’ve cared. Magna was too physically and emotionally exhausted, and Luck was intent on being by his side.</p><p> </p><p>They quietly walked towards Magna’s room. Neither of them noticed Vanessa pass by at the end of the hallway. As they entered the bedroom, Luck closed the door behind them and they stood silently. Something weird started emerging from Magna’s chest when he realized this was one of the rare moments they shared doing nothing but being around each other… except this time, Luck was holding his hand.</p><p> </p><p>Without letting go, getting one step closer and into the other’s personal space, Luck rested his head against Magna’s chest to hide his face from the conversation he was about to start.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m confused.”</p><p> </p><p>“About what?” Magna’s answer came out as barely a whisper.</p><p> </p><p>“About… my feelings.”</p><p> </p><p>“... What do you mean?”</p><p> </p><p>“I... “</p><p> </p><p>A moment of silence.</p><p> </p><p>“I tried to kiss you today.”</p><p> </p><p>A longer moment of silence.</p><p> </p><p>“While you were asleep.”</p><p> </p><p>Magna’s heart skipped several beats. What… had Luck just told him? Was he serious? Neither of them moved, but he was pretty sure Luck could feel his heartbeat increase and become unsteady. He didn’t know what to say. But he had to say something.</p><p> </p><p>“Why?” was all he could ask.</p><p> </p><p>“I didn’t know we could be as close as the way we were yesterday. I didn’t know I even wanted to. And, now… I don’t know what to do.”</p><p> </p><p>Luck wasn’t sure how he was able to voice his feelings so openly, nor that he knew that much about them in the first place. It seemed his heart was doing all the talking for him.</p><p> </p><p>“Say, Magna…”</p><p> </p><p>He finally raised his head to look at him. Magna was surprised to see Luck’s flushed cheeks and shiny eyes as he asked,</p><p> </p><p>“What are we?”</p><p> </p><p>He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He had spent the entire day worried about how Luck would probably leave him for someone else in the future, and now he just learned that he had tried to… kiss… him. He hadn’t even stopped to think about why he was so scared of that happening until Luck brought this up, but now things were starting to fall into place.</p><p> </p><p>So, this meant… Magna had been scared because he wanted to be the one Luck fell in love with, and had never considered that that hope could ever become a reality.</p><p> </p><p>Consequently… This also meant that Magna was in love with Luck.</p><p> </p><p>Reality hit him hard like a truck. It all made sense to him now. He had never experienced these feelings before, so he didn’t even know that what they had been through all this time had built such a strong emotion inside him.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m… awake now.”</p><p> </p><p>Luck looked confused. Magna looked away shyly. God, what was <em> he </em> saying now?</p><p> </p><p>The hand that wasn’t latched onto the other reached out towards his cheek again, trailing his face until it stopped behind his neck. </p><p> </p><p>Luck slowly leaned in and placed a kiss on Magna’s cheek. He stayed there for a moment and then pulled back. Now was his turn to look away shyly. He had noticed the way Magna’s heartbeat had increased just now, but now he thought his own easily surpassed the other’s.</p><p> </p><p>Magna, on the other hand, had stopped breathing. Luck really had just kissed him. The unthinkable had just happened. His body instinctively moved forward as he leaned in to kiss Luck’s cheek back, staying there for a little longer than last time before pulling away just enough to touch their foreheads together, both of their eyes closed.</p><p> </p><p>“What do you want us to be?” Magna whispered.</p><p> </p><p>At some point, the two started to pant softly. It was more noticeable now that their breaths were the only sound breaking the silence.</p><p> </p><p>They were so close, but the distance seemed too far as both of them slowly leaned in… </p><p> </p><p>… Until their lips finally met.</p><p> </p><p>The sensation was different from any other they had ever felt. It was gentle, soft and warm, but sent sparks all over their bodies and lit their hearts on fire. Everything they ever did was fast and loud, often involving playful bickering between them… but this was a striking contrast to anything they had ever done before. To even the hugs they had shared.</p><p> </p><p>They stayed there for a few moments, sighing heavily when they finally broke the kiss.</p><p> </p><p>One wasn’t enough.</p><p> </p><p>They kissed again.</p><p> </p><p>And again.</p><p> </p><p>And again.</p><p> </p><p>They finally let their hands go so they could touch each other. They wanted to be closer. Magna gently held Luck’s face as he deepened the kiss, Luck grasped the shirt covering Magna’s chest.</p><p> </p><p>Before they knew it, they started losing control. What had started out slow had grown to be desperate as they started running their hands through each other’s bodies like they wanted to be able to touch everywhere at the same time. The panting grew louder as they tried their best to keep breathing after every breathtaking kiss and touches they shared.</p><p> </p><p>“Ah…”</p><p> </p><p>Luck moaned as Magna licked his bottom lip, wanting to deepen the kiss even further. If gestures could speak, Magna’s would be begging for permission. Denying it had never even crossed Luck’s mind. </p><p> </p><p>The sound of their breaths ceased when their tongues met. They slowed down as their minds went blank, the sensation too intense for either of them to think of anything else. Magna’s hands trailed down Luck’s waist and up again, lifting his tunic a little in the process. He walked forward until Luck’s back was pressed against the wall, who held his waist in response and pulled him closer so their bodies flushed together.</p><p> </p><p>They panted heavily when they broke the kiss, but dived in again as soon as they regained their breaths. Luck started feeling weak on the knees and slid down the wall bit by bit, so Magna lifted him up by the waist and off the ground, pulling his tunic a little higher. Luck put his arms around Magna’s shoulders and wrapped his legs around his waist. The motion made it obvious that Luck was just as hard as he was himself, which Magna found strangely endearing.</p><p> </p><p>Luck let out another moan when Magna pressed harder against his body, sending sparks all over him again. It was Magna’s turn to moan when Luck instinctively thrusted his hips in response. Everything they were doing right now was mind-blowing to the both of them. Neither had ever considered getting this close, but now there was nothing else in the world they would have wanted. It all felt so right, like they were meant to be. </p><p> </p><p>Breathing was proving to get harder by the second. Magna’s legs were starting to give up on him too, so he carried Luck to his bed, breaking the kiss only to run his lips through Luck’s neck instead, hands going under the fabric of his tunic, desperately wanting more of the boy that was now beneath him. Only then did he notice he was still wearing his gloves, and immediately pulled back his hands to remove them.</p><p> </p><p>“Your shirt,” Luck breathed. Magna looked in his eyes as he took his gloves off.</p><p> </p><p>“Take it off too.”</p><p> </p><p>Magna wasted no time and got rid of it in one swift motion without breaking eye contact, throwing it to the side. Luck lost all of his breath. He knew Magna had a strong build but, oh my God, there was no other word to describe him other than “delicious” right now. His face grew even hotter as he placed a hand on his chest and started running it down through his abs. His hand stopped as he got distracted staring at the man in front of him.</p><p> </p><p>“Hey,” Magna breathed out, leaning in on his ear to whisper as he grasped the bottom of the fabric of Luck’s tunic, slowly pulling it up while running his hands through his body.</p><p> </p><p>“Your face is all red.”</p><p> </p><p>Luck gasped. Magna’s voice sounded so husky, his statement making his heart beat faster. He quickly took off his tunic, throwing it aside as he carefully leaned in to kiss Magna, gently, as if only now for the first time. </p><p> </p><p>Now that they were both shirtless, kissing had become even more intimate than before. It was as if they were both completely giving in to each other, having nothing else to hide. Their emotions were all over the place. From insecurity, fear, sadness, regret and guilt to relief, happiness, belonging, lust and love… they shared it all through their body language.</p><p> </p><p>As Magna touched Luck’s skin, the delicacy of his build that was so strikingly contrasting to his abnormal strength surprised him once again. It was unbelievably soft too. He felt like the most blessed person in the world to be able to touch him like this. The fact that Luck reciprocated his feelings was amazing. He could easily say he was in heaven right now.</p><p> </p><p>“Hey,” Luck breathed out and leaned in to whisper in his ear,</p><p> </p><p>“Your face is all red too.”</p><p> </p><p>Luck took the opportunity to nibble on the lobe of his ear and unexpectedly discovered it was Magna’s soft spot when a deep moan escaped his lips. My, oh my, what a discovery. He pulled his other lobe with his fingers and got the same result. He started playing around with his ears and easily overpowered Magna, pushing him so Luck was on top.</p><p> </p><p>Magna started squirming under Luck, putting a hand over his mouth to try and suppress the moans that wouldn’t stop coming out. Who knew Magna could look and sound so cute? Luck was very proud of himself for this and mentally took note to never forget to tease him. He kissed the back of the hand on Magna’s face.</p><p> </p><p>“Let me hear you.”</p><p> </p><p>“B-But,” </p><p> </p><p>Magna started, but inhaled sharply when he felt Luck’s hand over his crotch. He squeezed it gently and he moaned again. God, that felt good. Magna couldn’t believe he was bawling just a few minutes ago, but, at the same time, his heart felt so full it wouldn’t be strange for him to start crying again. Out of happiness this time, though.</p><p> </p><p>In response, he lifted his knee and brushed it against Luck’s own erection. That seemed to work quite well, given how loud he gasped. He did it again, and Luck’s legs shaked a little in response. That was all he needed to put Luck underneath him again. Luck’s eyes were heavy and clouded, but he didn’t miss Magna’s eyes asking for permission. He lifted his hips and his pants were gone in no time. Magna quickly removed his own and threw it aside.</p><p> </p><p>They kissed again. Neither of them could get enough of it. The taste of their lips was so addicting, every time they did it they only wanted more of the other. Magna trailed kisses down Luck’s body and brushed on his nipples, earning a moan from him. So this was Luck’s sweet spot. It was time for revenge. He swirled his tongue around one of them and lightly pinched the other with his fingers. Just that was enough to make a mess out of Luck. He desperately squirmed and moaned as he gasped for air and clutched Magna’s hair.</p><p> </p><p>Magna played around for a while longer until it seemed Luck couldn’t take it anymore, and resumed trailing kisses down his body until he reached his erection. He looked into Luck’s eyes and silently asked for permission again. Luck stared back at him. This was the third time he was asking for permission. Unless he said it out loud, it seemed Magna would keep hesitating before doing anything. But the fact he was being so careful and considerate was also incredibly sweet.</p><p> </p><p>Luck smiled at him.</p><p> </p><p>“I trust you.”</p><p> </p><p>There it was again, that same gorgeous smile Luck had given him earlier today. Magna had no idea what he did to deserve them, but he would certainly pay more attention from now on so he could try to earn more. It made so many things happen to his heart.</p><p> </p><p>“You’re beautiful.”</p><p> </p><p>The words just came out of his mouth before he could even begin to think it through. He wholeheartedly meant it, though. Luck’s eyes shined as his smile widened, but he also looked a bit shy. Absolutely adorable. Magna hated to have to stop looking at him, but he had to kiss him right now so he did. Luck kept his smile and Magna smiled in return.</p><p> </p><p>He had meant to get back to where he was before, but Luck swiped his tongue inside his mouth and now he had to do the job with his hand instead. Luck moaned into the kiss when he grabbed hold of his shaft and started moving his hands up and down. They deepened the kiss and slowly picked up the pace. </p><p> </p><p>It was getting hard to breathe, so they broke the kiss again. Luck pushed Magna forward a bit so he could sit down, putting his legs around Magna's waist and took hold of his shaft as well. </p><p> </p><p>"Let's do this together."</p><p> </p><p>And so they did. They touched their foreheads together and gasped for air. As they increased the pace, their hands got sloppier, but it still felt like heaven. It didn't take long until they were close. </p><p> </p><p>"Magna…" </p><p> </p><p>"Yeah…?" </p><p> </p><p>"I love you."</p><p> </p><p>Magna sighed contentedly. </p><p> </p><p>What a relief it was to hear those words…</p><p> </p><p>They both came shortly after. Magna kissed Luck.</p><p> </p><p>“I love you.”</p><p>
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope this chapter was enjoyable ;w; so sorry if anything sounded wrong or weird! Not only this is my first time writing a scene like this, but it's also my first time writing a fanfic overall so yeah lmao :')</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This began pretty slow-paced (development-wise) because, again, I'm aware that there are people who are reading this without actually knowing the characters/world and stuff ;w; hope you guys could enjoy this chapter anyway!! Comments are appreciated!!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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